Indian Government offers Internship to IIMs, ISB, MDI and other B-School students to tackle Coronavirus Crisis

In light of the recent events where quite a few companies revoked their internship offers, leaving numerous students stranded and internship-less, a ray of hope emerged last evening from the nooks of an unexpected source - the government. With the announcement of an internship opportunity in these desperate times, the Government of India revealed that it is looking forward to hiring MBA interns for a period of 8 weeks to tackle the Coronavirus crisis. 

The Government has written letters to IIMs as well as a few other leading knowledge partners all over the country to ask for interns who can actively work towards finding solutions for the pandemic. The selected interns would work under 11 Special Empowered Groups for a period of 8 weeks from the date of joining and will be responsible for providing an integrated and comprehensive response to the ongoing crisis, as disclosed by the letter issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The aforementioned Empowered Groups have been designed by the government specifically to deal with the COVID-19 crisis at hand.

The IIMs are required to propose the names of interested candidates, who will then sit for an online interview and selection process conducted by the government. The shortlisting of interns will depend on the interview as well as their educational qualifications and previous work experience mentioned in their resume, said the letter. During their internship, the selected candidates will support the Empowered groups with evidence-based policy inputs and data analysis related to Coronavirus, mentioned the letter written to the directors of IIMs. 

Keeping the nationwide lockdown in perspective, the said internship will be conducted online and will purely be a work from home opportunity. Once the interns are shortlisted, they will all work on the tasks assigned by the Empowered groups. The interns will be required to send in their inputs via SLACK app, an online tool. All interns will be awarded a certificate upon completion of their internship, which will be issued by the Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. 

The letter also mentioned that the said internship will be pro bono, providing no stipend to the students, unlike the internships provided by renowned multinational organisations. The list of institutes, that have been offered this opportunity to partner with the government for the said internship, include all IIMs, Management Development Institute, TERI, Indian School of Business and Indian Institute of Public Administration and Kalaam Centre, Delhi. 

All mentioned institutes have been requested to send in the names of the interested candidates at the earliest to the following two email addresses: soigot-dopt@gov.in and manoj.gupta74@nic.in. 

This is your chance to take a step forward and serve the nation. Make the most of this opportunity. All the best!