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‘As the Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme is an ambitious scheme, the exclusion of PG students may precipitate an intellectual loss to the nation’
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While it is heartening that the students aged between 21 to 24 years are now eligible to apply for the Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme (PMIS), which has been initiated to cultivate nascent talent and augment the capacities and the skills of India’s youth, the exclusion of postgraduate (PG) degree holders from its ambit is disconcerting. The inclusion of PG students could have made this scheme more useful and attractive as the specialised expertise of such students could contribute immensely, post internship, to the development trajectory of India. Over 80,000 internship opportunities across 737 districts and 24 sectors are reportedly listed on the portal meant for this internship scheme registration.
As industrialised States, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh account for 56% of the total listed internship. Students who are selected will be given a monthly sum of ₹4,500 as stipend by the government through direct benefit transfer. The company providing the internship will pay ₹500 a month to the interns out of its corporate social responsibility fund. The government will also provide a one-time grant of ₹6,000 an annum to meet the incidental expenses of the interns.
Rising numbers of postgraduate students
The All-India Survey for Higher Education (AISHE-2021-22) report shows a remarkable increase in PG enrolment as more than 46 lakh students pursued PG courses in different streams, constituting 10.81% of India’s total enrolment in higher education. PG enrolment surged by 26% since 2019-20. The major PG disciplines that have emerged are science, engineering and technology, management and commerce, medical science and social science with an enrolment of 18.6%, 8.61%, 22.7%, 11.08%, 5.30% and 23.08%, respectively. Significantly female students (61.2%) outnumber their male students (38.8%) while enrolling in the science discipline. Interestingly, many students opt for doctoral programmes after PG studies. The total enrolment for the Ph.D. programme is 2,12,474. At the Ph.D. level, around 24.8% enrolment is in the discipline engineering and technology and 21.3% enrolment in the science discipline.
As the PMIS is an ambitious and well-designed scheme that intends to offer internship to one crore aspirants in top 500 companies over five years, the exclusion of PG students may precipitate an intellectual loss to the nation, forcing them to seek opportunities abroad. By restricting PG students from exposure to the real-world problems, their advanced knowledge would remain latent, thereby hindering India’s progress in critical domains such as oil, gas and energy, automotive technology, electronics, banking and finance, travel and hospitality which are included in the list under the PMIS. This would stifle their research and innovation potential, impeding India’s transition to a knowledge-based economy and global leader.
The one-year internship scheme, which was launched in this year’s Union Budget, aims to bridge the gap between the skill sets of unemployable students and those required by industry. Leaving PG students, who are relatively more mature and receptive to new ideas than their undergraduate counterparts, deprives them from accessing its benefits. Such exclusion denies PG holders valuable work experience, relegating them to obscurity, leading to career stagnation. They may be compelled to consider alternative and often unrelated career paths, leading to frustration and disillusionment. Ironically, unemployed candidates enrolled in online or distance learning courses are eligible to apply under this scheme.
National consequences
Many bright PG candidates who have an appetite for research enrol for doctoral programmes in several central and State-funded universities. For example, if PG degree holders in disciplines such as chemistry, physics and electrical and electronics engineering are groomed through the PMIS in the semiconductor industry, it may pay rich dividends to the nation in the long run. Such students could also serve as mentors to undergraduate interns, fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing and peer learning. Many may opt for entrepreneurship and venture into startups, post internship, in industry. This will give wings to the entrepreneurial spirit, catalysing the start-up ecosystem in India. Hence, exclusion of PG holders could diminish India’s global competitiveness, thereby jeopardising its aspirations to become a knowledge hub and a leader in the global industry.
It has been seen that critical projects and initiatives often suffer from a lack of specialised expertise, hindering India’s development trajectory and affecting India’s vision of a Viksit Bharat by the year 2047. Leaving out PG students limits the pool of applicants, potentially reducing the overall effectiveness of this programme.
Need for correction
With news of creating lakhs of jobs in sectors such as precision manufacturing, assembly, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, and pharmaceuticals, including PG degree holders in the PMIS could have enriched the scheme by bringing in a wide range of skills, experience, and insights, that could benefit both the intern and the organisations they engage with. It would have enabled seamless career mobility for PG students in such organisations, paving the way for greater labour force participation, especially for women. It would have also reduced the unemployment rate. Since the rate of unemployment is higher among the more educated cohort, as hypothesised by the International Labour Organization in its “India Employment Report-2024”, inclusion of PG degree holders in the PMIS would help address this challenge.
As this is being called a pilot project undertaken at a budget cost of ₹800 crore, the scheme may be made more inclusive by expanding it to include PG degree holders in its ambit. At least some provisions for the inclusion of PG degree holders may be made in specific fields when this scheme is revisited before it becomes a full-fledged policy programme. Including PG degree holders would also complement the goals of another flagship initiative, “Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)” in catalysing the research ecosystem in the country. In view of the growing number of PG students (AISHE 2022-23 data), it is imperative for policymakers to make the PMIS more inclusive and accessible. It must have adequate provision for PG students, paving the way for harnessing their potential and meeting India’s aspirations.
Milind Kumar Sharma teaches in the Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, MBM University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The views expressed are personal
Published – November 08, 2024 11:20 am IST
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