With an outlay of ₹60,000 crore, the PM-SETU scheme is set to upgrade special skills training in industrial institutes across India in sectors including IT, automotive, agriculture, electronics, logistics, BFSI, tourism, and hospitality, said the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on October 4, the Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU) is set to transform the country’s Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in a hub-and-spoke model that includes 200 hub ITIs linked to 800 spoke ITIs.
Each hub will be equipped with advanced infrastructure, innovation and incubation centres, production units, training of trainer facilities, and placement services, while the spokes will extend access and outreach.
Addressing the launch programme, Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Jayant Chaudhary, said the PM-SETU is a very ambitious and important scheme that will revamp existing courses in collaboration with industries and introduce new demand-driven courses to transform 1,000 government ITIs across India into modern, industry-aligned training institutions.
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“The ITIs impart training to 169 trades. This year, nearly 9 lakh students have achieved the national trade certificate (NTC). It is perhaps for the first time in India’s history that such a large-scale investment is being done in ITIs via PM-SETU,” Chaudhary said.
The scheme will help strengthen five National Skill Training Institutes in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Hyderabad (Telangana), Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Ludhiana (Punjab) as ‘Centres of Excellence’ with global partnerships.
Under the first phase of PM-SETU, 15 hub-and-spoke ITI clusters have been identified across the country, including Sonipat (Haryana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bijnor and Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), Haridwar (Uttarakhand), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh), Bengaluru Urban (Karnataka), Bharatpur (Rajasthan), Darbhanga and Patna (Bihar), Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Hyderabad (Telangana), Sambalpur (Odisha), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), and Guwahati (Assam).
Each cluster will serve as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in skills, equipped with advanced infrastructure, modern trades, and industry-led training, thereby creating model ecosystems.
While the scheme helps create pathways for long-term diplomas, short-term courses, and executive programmes, there will also be ‘special purpose vehicles’ set up with credible industry partners to manage these clusters and ensure outcome-based training.
A special purpose vehicle is a separate legal entity created by a parent company for a specific, limited purpose, such as financing a particular project, isolating financial risks, or holding assets.
Chaudhary observed that the 1,200 ‘Vocational Skill Labs’ established in Navodaya Vidyalayas and Eklavya Model Residential schools will also help impart skills to students across 12 key sectors including IT, automotive, agriculture, electronics, logistics, BFSI, tourism, hospitality, etc.
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