Indian Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Tuesday the launch of an internship scheme aimed at providing on-the-job training to 10 million youth across the top 500 companies over the next five years. Sitharaman suggested that interns will receive an allowance of Rs5,000 per month to gain practical experience in real-world settings. Companies participating in the scheme will fund the training and 10% of the training costs from their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, as mandated by Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013, which requires certain companies to allocate 2% of their average net profit over the past three years to CSR activities.
In her Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Sitharaman also proposed the creation of employment opportunities for over 40 million youth in the next five years, with an allocation of Rs0.2 million crore for this purpose. Additionally, she announced plans to skill 2 million youth over a five-year period with an investment of Rs1.48 crore, and upgrade 1,000 industrial training institutes. Sitharaman further proposed a one-time wage incentive for all first-time employees across all sectors, to be provided through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
Emphasizing the key focus areas of the Budget, Sitharaman highlighted employment, skilling, MSME, and the middle class as critical components of the government's strategy.
