Rs 5,000 Stipend for 1 Crore Youth to Do Internship

Chennai: From now on, one crore youth can become industry-ready by interning with top companies while receiving a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 from the government and another Rs 6,000 from the company.

The Budget has incentivised the top companies for five years to provide internship opportunities to youth by providing monthly allowance. The Centre has allocated Rs 19,000 crore for the scheme for five years.

The Centre will provide a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 per person for 12 months of internship. Of the total yearly allowance, Rs 54,000 will go towards monthly allowance and the remaining Rs 6,000 will be granted for incidentals.

The decision of companies to participate in the scheme will be voluntary and they have to offer Rs 6,000 from Corporate Social Responsibility funds towards a monthly allowance. Training cost has to be borne by the company from CSR funds. Administrative costs have to be borne by the company and reasonable administrative expenses can be counted as CSR expenditure.

Youth who are not employed and not engaged in full-time education can apply for this. They should be aged between 21 and 24. Candidates with IIT, IIM, IISER, CA, and CMA qualifications are not eligible for the scheme. Further, they should not be a member of the family, which is assessed to income tax, and any member of the family should not be a government employee.

Applications can be sent through an online portal. Companies should shortlist candidates based on objective criteria with emphasis on those with lower employability. Companies are expected to provide the person an actual working experience in a skill in which the company is directly involved. At least half the time should be spent in actual working experience or job environment and not in the classroom. In case the companies cannot directly do so, they must tie up with companies in their forward and backward supply chain or with other companies or institutions in their group.