In a bid to expand participation in the Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS), the government has expanded the eligibility criteria to include final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students.

“This is expected to unlock early access to structured internship opportunities in top companies across India for students, enabling them to gain hands-on industry exposure before completing their formal education. The decision has been formalised in consultation with the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education,” said a release by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on Wednesday.

Under the revised guidelines, final year students between 18 and 25 years of age can now apply for paid internships in top companies through the PMIS portal. Applicants must continue to meet the existing eligibility criteria under the scheme. Students are required to submit a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their respective educational institutions during the application process. The NOC must confirm that participation in the internship will not interfere with academic requirements. 

Authorised signatories include Heads of Department, Deans, Principals, or Training & Placement Officers, said the MCA statement.

Until now, the scheme permitted candidates between the ages of 21 and 24 years old, who have passed Class 10 and are not engaged in full-time employment, to apply. Those passing out of IITs, IIMs, IISER or with professional degrees such as chartered accountants or cost accountants were not eligible for the scheme. Individuals from families with government jobs and those with a family income of Rs 8 lakh per annum are also excluded.

Launched on October 3, 2024, the third pilot project of the PMIS is currently underway. The scheme provides paid internship opportunities to youth across the country with a minimum financial assistance of Rs 9,000 per month. Over 300 companies have participated in the pilot phase of PMIS, but there has been a poor response from candidates, and eventually, very few take up the offers.

For several months now, the MCA has been in discussions with stakeholders to understand the reasons for the poor participation and ways to improve the interest of young people in the scheme.

Responding to a question in Lok Sabha in February 2026, Harsh Malhotra, minister of state for corporate affairs and road transport and highways, had said that one of the main reasons for low acceptance of internship offers is location, and the ideal travel distance indicated by candidates is between 5-10 km.

Further, the internship period of 12 months is longer than that in normal skilling programs, while some candidates are not interested in the roles offered, he had informed the House of other reasons for low acceptance.

He had further said that in the first round of the pilot, more than 621,000 applications were received from about 181,000 candidates. Partner companies made over 82,000 internship offers to over 60,000 candidates, and over 28,000 offers were accepted.

In the Round II of the PM Internship Scheme Pilot Project, over 455,000 applications were received from over 214,000 applicants, in this round. Partner companies made over 83,000 offers to over 71,000 candidates, and over 24,600 offers were accepted. By January 27, 2026, as many as 7,094 candidates had left the internship without completing the rounds of the PMIS Pilot Project.

The full-scale roll-out of the scheme is expected to be based on the feedback received from the stakeholder consultations and evaluation of outcomes during the implementation of the pilot projects. It aims to provide over 10 million internship opportunities over a five-year period.

Published on: Apr 22, 2026 6:33 PM IST