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The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship told the Lok Sabha that PM-SETU — Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability transformation through Upgraded ITIs — aims to raise the quality and relevance of vocational training through upgraded labs, machines and industry-aligned curriculum.
Component I upgrades 1,000 Government ITIs — 200 Hub ITIs and 800 Spoke ITIs — in a hub-and-spoke model with smart classrooms, modern labs, digital content and new industry-aligned courses.
Component II augments the capacity of five National Skill Training Institutes at Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Ludhiana, including sector-specific National Centres of Excellence focused on advanced training of trainers with global partnerships.
Industry partners submit a Strategic Investment Plan for approval by the State and National Steering Committees, after which the selected Anchor Industry Partner must form a Special Purpose Vehicle; seven SIPs have been approved so far — three from Telangana and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Gujarat.
The scheme has been approved for a five-year implementation period and targets emerging sectors including Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors and green energy; the Directorate General of Training has introduced 32 new-age courses under the Craftsmen Training Scheme.
Two design choices distinguish PM-SETU from previous ITI upgradation efforts. The first is the hub-and-spoke architecture: rather than upgrading every institute to the same standard, 200 Hub ITIs receive the heaviest investment in advanced labs, trainers and new courses, and each anchors a cluster of Spoke ITIs that share those facilities and curriculum. Concentrating expensive equipment at hubs makes advanced trades such as semiconductor technology or robotics viable where spreading the same money thinly would not. The second is that industry, not the State, leads. An Anchor Industry Partner submits a Strategic Investment Plan, and once it clears the State and National Steering Committees it must incorporate a Special Purpose Vehicle — a separate legal entity — which then drives curriculum redesign, training delivery models, infrastructure upgradation and industry exposure within the scheme guidelines. The SPV route is what converts an industry's stated commitment into an enforceable, audited obligation. Because ITIs remain under the administrative and financial control of State Governments, the scheme depends on States adopting the DGT's new-age courses and running the selection process through their own Steering Committees.
Simple Analogy: A hub ITI is the district hospital with the scanner; the spokes are the clinics that refer patients to it. The SPV is the contract that makes the industry partner an owner of the outcome rather than a well-wisher.
Improve training quality in ITIs and NSTIs, modernise infrastructure to industry standards, introduce industry-aligned long- and short-term courses in emerging sectors, strengthen industry linkage for demand-driven skilling, and enhance NSTI capacity for training of trainers
Key: Two components — 1,000 ITIs on a hub-and-spoke model and five NSTIs with National Centres of Excellence — driven by industry-led Special Purpose Vehicles, over five years
Long-term vocational training through Industrial Training Institutes
Key: Anchored by the Directorate General of Training; 32 new-age trades have been introduced, and since ITIs are under State administrative and financial control, States may adopt these courses in their own ITIs
Train the trainers who staff ITIs
Key: Delivered through the NSTI network — the capability PM-SETU's Component II is designed to strengthen through National Centres of Excellence and global partnerships
Industry-led standard setting
Key: Consulted in the curriculum revision process alongside State Governments, industry representatives, NSTIs, subject matter experts, academia and employers, so that revised curricula reflect Industry 4.0, AI, IoT, automation, green and renewable energy, electric mobility and digital skills
Owns PM-SETU and the wider Skill India Mission
Anchors the Craftsmen Training Scheme and Craft Instructor Training Scheme across the ITI and NSTI network; introduced the 32 new-age trades
Approve Strategic Investment Plans submitted by Anchor Industry Partners; State Steering Committees also fix eligibility criteria such as turnover and employee numbers at the Expression of Interest or Request for Proposal stage
Train the trainers for the ITI system; five — Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Ludhiana — receive capacity augmentation and National Centres of Excellence under Component II
ITIs are under their administrative and financial control; they decide which ITIs enter the scheme, in consultation with industry, and may adopt DGT's new-age courses
The curriculum revision explicitly folds in Industry 4.0 applications, AI, IoT, automation, green and renewable energy, electric mobility and digital skills — the same technology list that drives PMKVY 4.0's new-age courses
Trades such as Semiconductor Technician and Green Hydrogen Production Technician exist because of the India Semiconductor Mission and the National Green Hydrogen Mission — skilling policy following industrial policy
The scheme's structure — Centre funds and sets guidelines, States select institutes and run Steering Committees, industry forms SPVs — is a working example of a tripartite delivery model rather than a straightforward Centrally Sponsored Scheme
PM-SETU's stated aim of facilitating apprenticeships and practical workplace exposure links it to NAPS and the Apprentices Act, 1961
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Government Schemes; GS Paper 3 > Employment and Skilling
General Awareness > Government Schemes
General Awareness > Schemes and Institutions
New Central schemes with distinctive acronyms are reliably tested in the year after launch
Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability transformation through Upgraded ITIs — MSDE's five-year scheme to upgrade 1,000 Government ITIs and five NSTIs
The design under which 200 Hub ITIs receive the heaviest upgradation and anchor clusters of 800 Spoke ITIs that share their facilities and curriculum
The proposal an Anchor Industry Partner submits for approval by the State and National Steering Committees before forming a Special Purpose Vehicle to lead the upgradation
National Skill Training Institute — the institutes that train ITI trainers; five are being augmented under PM-SETU Component II