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Context:

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled an audit report in Parliament (December 2025) highlighting serious implementation lapses in the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) across its three phases (2015–2022), a flagship skill-development programme aimed at tackling youth unemployment.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY):

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship skill development programme of the Government of India, launched in 2015 and implemented through the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The scheme seeks to provide free, industry-aligned skill training to Indian youth in order to improve their employability and address persistent skill shortages across sectors. By focusing on short-term training, certification, and recognition of existing skills, PMKVY aims to make India’s workforce job-ready while supporting economic growth and self-reliance. 

Core components of PMKVY:

• Short-Term Training (STT): Provides job-oriented skill training in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, construction, IT, and services to improve employability of unemployed and under-skilled youth.
• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): Certifies skills acquired through informal learning or work experience, enabling better job mobility, wage recognition, and entry into the formal workforce.
• Special Projects: Supports customised training programmes for specific regions, industries, vulnerable groups, or emerging skill requirements. 

Key features of PMKVY:

• Free Skill Training: Offers cost-free training to reduce financial barriers for youth from economically weaker sections.
• Government-Recognised Certification: Ensures credibility and acceptance of acquired skills in the labour market.
• Monetary Incentives & Placement Support: Provides financial rewards and facilitates job placement through employer linkages and job fairs.
• Nationwide Training Network: Implemented through NSDC-affiliated training centres across urban and rural areas.
• Digital & Soft Skills Training: Includes digital literacy, financial awareness, communication, and workplace readiness skills.
• Entrepreneurship Promotion: Encourages self-employment and small enterprise creation through skill-based training.

 Objectives of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana:

• Enhance Employability: Align workforce skills with current and future industry demand.

• Develop a Skilled Workforce: Create a competitive labour force meeting national and global standards. 

• Formal Recognition of Skills: Integrate the informal workforce into the formal economy through RPL certification. 

• Promote Entrepreneurship: Enable income generation beyond wage employment. 

• Improve Worker Productivity: Enhance efficiency and output across sectors. 

• Support Financial Inclusion: Facilitate access to banking and livelihood opportunities. 

• Strengthen Training Infrastructure: Expand and improve skill training centres under NSDC. 

• Ensure Inclusive Access: Focus on women, rural youth, and marginalised sections. 

Key irregularities flagged by the CAG in PMKVY:

• Defective beneficiary bank account details: The CAG found serious deficiencies in beneficiary bank account information on the Skill India Portal, noting that 53% of participants (90.66 lakh out of 95.90 lakh candidates) had bank account fields recorded as blank, null, “N/A”, or zero, while among the remaining cases, 12,122 unique bank account numbers were repeatedly used for 52,381 candidates, including clearly fictitious entries such as “11111111111” and “123456”, thereby undermining the credibility of beneficiary identification. 

• Delays and failures in direct benefit transfers (DBT): Despite PMKVY guidelines mandating a ₹500 Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to each certified candidate, the audit revealed that DBT payments were processed for only 58% candidates (24.53 lakh) and successfully credited to merely 18.44% candidates (17.69 lakh) under PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0, leaving over 34 lakh certified candidates unpaid even after the closure of the respective scheme phases. 

• Weak beneficiary verification and communication systems: CAG’s online beneficiary survey highlighted severe data integrity issues, with an email delivery failure rate of 36.51%, and among the delivered emails, a response rate of only 95%, of which over three-fourths of responses originated from the same email IDs or training partners, raising concerns over the authenticity of beneficiary outreach and feedback mechanisms. 

• Non-functional or closed training centres: Physical inspections conducted by the CAG revealed multiple instances of closed or non-operational training centres, including a case in Banka district, Bihar, where the Skill India Portal showed ongoing training for two batches even though the centre was found shut on the scheduled training date, exposing discrepancies between digital records and ground-level realities. 

• Questionable skill certification practices: The audit observed instances where skill certifications were issued by employers who did not qualify as ‘Best-in-Class’, contrary to scheme guidelines, thereby weakening the credibility, labour-market acceptance, and signalling value of PMKVY certifications. 

• Reuse and duplication of photographic evidence: CAG identified significant discrepancies in training documentation, noting that identical photographs were uploaded for multiple beneficiaries across states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, suggesting ineffective monitoring and potential inflation of training outcomes. 

Key achievements of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY):

• Large-scale skill certification: PMKVY has enabled skill training and certification of around 1.1 crore candidates between 2015 and 2022, making it one of the largest government-led skilling initiatives in India. 

• Expansion of industry-relevant skill training: The scheme has provided short-term, job-oriented training across high-demand sectors such as manufacturing, construction, healthcare, IT-ITeS, retail, logistics, and tourism, aligning workforce skills with labour market needs. 

• Formal recognition of informal skills (RPL): Through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), PMKVY has helped millions of workers from the informal sector obtain formal certification, improving job mobility, wage prospects, and social recognition.
• Pan-India training infrastructure: PMKVY has established a nationwide network of NSDC-affiliated training centres, ensuring coverage across urban, rural, and aspirational districts, thereby reducing regional skill disparities. 

• Inclusion of marginalised groups: The scheme has promoted inclusive skilling by targeting women, rural youth, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, and economically weaker sections, supporting social equity and empowerment. 

• Promotion of digital and soft skills: PMKVY has integrated digital literacy, financial awareness, communication skills, and workplace behaviour into training modules, enhancing overall employability beyond technical skills. 

• Support for entrepreneurship and self-employment: By focusing on skill-based livelihoods, PMKVY has encouraged self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship, particularly among youth and first-generation workers. 

• Strengthening of skill ecosystem: The scheme has contributed to the development of a standardised skilling ecosystem, including National Occupational Standards (NOS), qualification frameworks, trainer certification, and digital skill databases. 

Other key government initiatives for skill development & employment:

Skill India Mission: Launched in 2015, the Skill India Mission provides an overarching framework to train India’s workforce by integrating skilling with industry demand, certification standards, and global employability.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY): This scheme focuses on rural poor youth, particularly from below-poverty-line households, by providing residential skill training linked with wage employment and long-term career progression.

National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS): NAPS encourages industries to engage apprentices by sharing stipend costs, thereby promoting on-the-job training and smoother school-to-work transitions.

National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS): Targeted at graduates and diploma holders, NATS offers practical training in industrial and service sectors to enhance employability of technically educated youth.

SANKALP (Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion): This is the World Bank–assisted programme strengthens institutional capacity, quality assurance, and monitoring systems in India’s skilling ecosystem.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK): PMKKs serve as model skill centres equipped with advanced infrastructure and industry-aligned training facilities to ensure quality skill delivery at the district level.

Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) Scheme: JSS focuses on non-formal skill training for neo-literates, women, and disadvantaged groups in traditional and emerging livelihood areas.

Startup India: Startup India supports entrepreneurship and innovation through funding access, incubation, tax incentives, and regulatory simplification, complementing skill development efforts.

Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ABRY): ABRY incentivises employers to create new jobs by the government sharing EPF contributions for eligible employees.

Conclusion:

The CAG findings on the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana reveal that while PMKVY has played an important role in expanding skill training and certification across India, serious gaps in beneficiary verification, financial disbursement, and ground-level monitoring have diluted its effectiveness. The experience underscores that technology-driven skilling initiatives must be supported by strong institutional oversight, data integrity, and outcome-based accountability to translate public expenditure on skills into real employment and livelihood gains for India’s youth.

Source: Indian Express