India’s flagship skill development programme, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), has been marred by serious systemic weaknesses in planning, execution and monitoring, according to a damning performance audit by the comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG). The
audit, tabled in Parliament in December, points to large-scale data inconsistencies, widespread violations of eligibility norms, weak verification of job outcomes and inadequate financial and information technology (IT) controls, raising questions over the credibility of official claims on training, certification and placement. While over ₹10,000 crore was released during the audited phases, CAG says delays in transferring funds to implementing agencies affected timely execution.
Speaking with reporters, Kannan Gopinathan, a former officer from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre and Congress leader called the finding of CAG report as 'scamming skill of the government'. He says, "About 95% fraud bank accounts, 96% fraud mobile numbers, 97% fraud assessor details - all this in the CAG report of this ₹10000 crore scam. Your tax money that gets cut before even coming to your hand has been robbed off in the name of skilling."
"A company named Neelima Moving Pictures claims to have trained 33,000 people under PMKVY, but the company has been shut for the last five to six years. Under the training programme, the same photograph was used at different locations and shown as evidence of training being conducted. A training partner called Jaipur Cultural Society has stated that it organised training on 31st February. These people have become so skilled at scamming that they are now claiming to have conducted training even on 31st February!" he added.
In its performance audit report no20 of 2025, CAG examined PMKVY phases implemented between 2015 and 2022 and concluded that while the scheme achieved scale, it fell short on integrity, accountability and measurable outcomes. The findings revive long-standing concerns that India’s skilling programmes have struggled to translate public spending into sustainable employment.
One of the most striking findings relates to beneficiary data maintained on the skill India portal (SIP). CAG found that during PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0, bank account details, which are mandatory for direct benfit transfers, were missing, blank, marked 'null' or recorded as 'N/A' in over 94% or 9.06mn (million) of 9.59mn records of beneficiaries.
Even where bank details were available, auditors detected repeated use of the same account numbers for multiple beneficiaries and placeholder entries such as '123456', '11111111111', single-digit numbers, or even names and symbols instead of valid account information. The audit also flagged the use of identical photographs for different beneficiaries across states.
According to CAG, these anomalies point to weak validation controls and severely undermine the reliability of programme data, especially for payments and beneficiary identification. The report notes that such gaps make it difficult to establish whether incentives and training benefits actually reached genuine candidates.
The audit also found systematic non-compliance with eligibility criteria prescribed under PMKVY. Despite clear minimum age and qualification requirements for various job roles, thousands of underage candidates were enrolled and certified.
More than 52,000 candidates were certified as ‘group farming practitioners’ despite not meeting the minimum age requirement, while over 40,000 underage candidates were certified as ‘self-employed tailors’. Similar violations were observed across several job roles and states.
CAG warned that certifying ineligible candidates weakens the credibility of the skill certification process and indicates serious lapses in oversight by training partners, assessment agencies and implementing authorities.
Employment outcomes, a core objective of PMKVY scheme emerged as another major weak spot. Of the 5.61mn candidates trained under short-term training and special projects, only 2.31mn, or about 41%, were reported as placed.
More worrying, CAG says placement data could often not be independently verified due to incomplete or unreliable documentation. In Kerala, incorrect placement documents were submitted as proof of employment, while in Uttar Pradesh, state agencies had no records to support placements claimed on the SIP.
The absence of a robust post-certification tracking mechanism meant the ministry could not assess whether training translated into sustained employment. The audit also found that around 3.4mn certified candidates had not received the ₹500 incentive payout, indicating delays and gaps in benefit disbursement.
CAG flagged serious deficiencies in monitoring systems and financial oversight. The Aadhaar enabled biometric attendance system (AEBAS), meant to prevent misuse and ensure attendance, was inconsistently implemented. Inspections revealed that biometric devices were either not installed or non-functional in at least 24 training centres.
The audit also pointed to the absence of a formal data retention and validation policy, weakening IT governance. On the financial side, it noted delays in fund releases, especially under the state component, and inconsistencies in utilisation and accounting. Funds were released in violation of receipt and payment rules and gaps were observed in expenditure reporting.
CAG’s findings echo concerns raised over the years about India’s skilling ecosystem. PMKVY, launched in 2015 under the skill india mission and relaunched multiple times, initially aimed to train 500mn people by 2022. However, the audit notes that the scheme claims to have trained only 13.2mn, of whom 11mn were certified figures the auditors said are themselves unreliable due to data weaknesses.
Official surveys reinforce doubts about impact. The Economic Survey 2023–24 reported that only 4.4% of Indians aged 15–29 have received formal vocational or technical training, a marginal change from earlier estimates, despite years of large-scale spending.
The audit also highlights policy and governance gaps, including the absence of micro-level skill gap assessments, weak Centre-state convergence and delayed operationalisation of the national council for vocational education and training (NCVET). It noted a shift in focus from actual training to recognition of prior learning (RPL), with excess certifications issued during phase-2, amid financial constraints.
Although the Union ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship has told CAG that corrective measures were introduced from phase4 in March 2022, auditors say the effectiveness of these reforms remains to be seen. Despite spending ₹9,261 crore from an outlay of ₹14,450 crore, the Union Cabinet approved an additional ₹8,800 crore in February 2025 to restructure the mission, even as details of the revamp remain unclear.
Taken together, CAG says the gaps in data integrity, eligibility enforcement, outcome tracking and financial controls indicate that PMKVY’s implementation suffered from systemic weaknesses. The auditor has recommended tighter beneficiary validation, demand-driven planning based on labour market needs, stronger monitoring systems and enhanced financial oversight to ensure that future skilling interventions deliver real and verifiable outcomes.
