The Congress on Monday reiterated its demand that the Modi government “conduct widespread consultations on the Caste Census,” saying that if “left to their own devices, this Government will undoubtedly botch it up.”

Asserting that government “continues to face a crippling talent deficit – and several of these schemes have seen incredibly poor implementation,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a post on his social media handle X, pointed out: “Reports have now emerged which show that the Internship scheme announced in the Union Budget last year has also flopped.”

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He alleged that “the funds allocated for the Pradhan Mantri Internship Scheme (PMIS) remained largely underutilised — the Rs 2,000 crore initially earmarked for FY25 was revised down to Rs 380 crore, and only Rs 21.1 crore has been spent till February 2025.”

“This is partly because of low interest in the program. Companies extended 82,000 offers under this program – but only 28,000 were accepted and only 8,725 candidates joined. Therefore, only 7 percent of the students accepted the internships. Many interns have also since left due to dissatisfaction with the internship programs,” Mr Ramesh pointed out.

Mr Ramesh further said: “Since June 4th last year, the Modi Govt agreed to withdraw the angel tax, implement Employment-Linked Incentives, introduce an Internship scheme, and announced a caste census.”