Internship scheme sparks row, Congress says govt ‘copied’ key manifesto promise

The Congress on Tuesday claimed that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has a taken a leaf out of the Opposition party’s key poll promise of a Right to Apprenticeship Act, after she said in her budget speech on Tuesday that the government would launch an internship scheme for youth in 500 top companies. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh posted on X: “The Finance Minister has taken a leaf out of the INC’s Nyay Patra 2024, with its internship program clearly modelled on the INC’s proposed Apprenticeship Program that was called Pehli Naukri Pakki.” Ramesh, however, criticised the NDA’s plan and said, “In their trademark style, the scheme has been designed to grab headlines, with arbitrary targets rather than a programmatic guarantee for all diploma holders and graduates, like the Indian National Congress had envisioned.” In its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the main opposition party said: “Congress guarantees a new Right to Apprenticeship Act to provide a one-year apprenticeship with a private or a public sector company to every diploma holder or college graduate below the age of 25. The apprenticeship will impart skills, enhance employability and provide full-time job opportunities for millions of youth.” The proposed Right to Apprenticeship Act was one of the key highlights of the Congress manifesto and it was seen as an extension of the host of rights-based laws that were enacted during the UPA era. In her speech, Sitharaman announced that “to bolster the Indian start-up eco-system, boost the entrepreneurial spirit and support innovation, I propose to abolish the so-called angel tax for all classes of investors.” According to the IT laws, a startup or an unlisted company has to pay a part of its funding from angel investors as a tax if the total investment value of a firm is more than its Fair Market Value.