A decade after the launch of India’s flagship skill development scheme, scrutiny has turned to financial and administrative lapses worth Rs 10,000 crore, as flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which implements the scheme, has now issued show-cause notices to 20 serving and former employees.
The notices list several charges — failure in securing placements, verifying accreditation of training centres, checking documents, and ensuring Aadhaar-based attendance. Some notices also warn of a central agency probe in case of financial misconduct or criminal culpability, adding that failure to respond within 15 days will be treated as an “admission of the charges.”
The notices are the latest in a series of crackdowns. In May 2025, the NSDC removed its then CEO Ved Mani Tewari. Three months later, the Ministry of Skill Development also filed a police complaint over “misappropriation of funds” at NSDC. The complaint named senior officials who were part of a committee heading NSDC after Tewari’s removal. It accused them of making “illegal appointments” and expressed apprehensions that they “might run away with government money”.
Several recipients of the show-cause notices, Indian Express reported, have denied the charges. These include a former staffer who allegedly quit NSDC in 2016, before the guidelines for PMKVY 2.0 were drafted, while another said this is “harassment”.
The 94-page performance audit of PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0 by CAG, tabled in Parliament in December 2025, highlighted that the scheme’s primary objective of boosting employment appears to have been largely unmet amid alleged data manipulation and fund mismanagement.
The scheme’s outcomes were heavily skewed. Just five sectors accounted for over half of all certifications and each of the remaining 19 sectors contributed less than 1 percent of total placements.
Of the 56.14 lakh candidates certified under the Short-Term Training and Special Projects categories, only 41 percent secured placements, leaving six in 10 certified candidates without a job.
More than 94 percent of beneficiaries — over 90 lakh people — had missing, blank, or null bank account details. Over 12,000 bank account numbers were duplicated across more than 52,000 beneficiaries. In addition, about 96 percent of beneficiaries had incorrect mobile numbers, and 97 percent had fraudulent assessor details.
The eligibility norms were also widely violated. Minimum age requirements were ignored, and educational qualifications and prior experience criterias were also overlooked in many cases.
The report found that over 85 percent of the candidates certified in roles requiring prior technical education did not meet the criteria; over 52,000 underage candidates were certified as group farming practitioners; over 40,000 underage candidates were certified as self-employed tailors; and more than 1,100 underage persons were certified for driving roles.
The CAG also noted underutilisation of funds, non-payment to training partners for 34 lakh candidates, outsourcing of accountability to a network of NGOs and training partners incentivised to certify without little scrutiny, and “poor monitoring and oversight” by the ministry. It deemed that the coordination between the Central and State departments was “not effective”.
In the wake of these findings, 178 training centres were blacklisted and 41 FIRs were registered over the falsification of attendance records. The investigations, however, are yet to fix accountability.
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