On flagship skill PMKVY scheme blacklist: Empty centres, claims, counter-claims, few takers

On December 1, 2025, Skill Minister Jayant Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that in addition to blacklisting, 41 FIRs had been registered in cases where “serious irregularities”, such as falsification of attendance records, were found. PMKVY courses typically run for 300-600 hours.

The fallout has affected not only the blacklisted centres but also several Skill Sector Councils (SSCs) — autonomous industry-led bodies set up by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which implements PMKVY. Of the 178 entities, 19 are run by SSCs, including those in the media, textile, tourism and telecom sectors.

A deserted photography training centre in Hapur district. (Express photo by Ritu Sarin)

The NSDC did not respond to requests for comment. Officials said the process of blacklisting is multi-layered with spot inspections, reviews and show-cause notices. A 26-page “monitoring guidelines” issued before the launch of the fourth version of the scheme in 2022 states that a final decision on cases of blacklisting or suspension is taken by NSDC’s internal monitoring committee as per the “approved penalty grid’’.

The total number of centres blacklisted is a fraction of the 12,840 functioning under PMKVY 4.0 but, as field visits by The Indian Express show, they are illustrative of the deeper structural challenges in how the nationwide skilling initiative operates on the ground.

The Indian Express visited several blacklisted centres and spoke to their owners, faculty members, inspectors or “observers”, to find a common theme: show-cause notices, blacklisting, de-branding orders, withheld payments and, in some cases, FIRs and police visits.

Skill: Food photography; Centre: Hapur, UP

At Bhaina Sadarpur village, the food photography lab set up by Rajendra Singh Tomar, chairman of Sardar Singh Memorial College, appears abandoned.

Tomar shows a show-cause notice dated May 20, 2025, stating that the centre, “found closed on a working day”, was suspended for six months. He shares the reply they sent, with photographs as proof. Their claim: the inspector mistakenly uploaded photographs of another school run by the family in the same village, not the college where the skill centre operated.

There was no reply, he says.

Instead, the centre’s name appeared on the blacklist. Faculty member Vikas Kumar said that after the show-cause notice, they were asked to “de-brand” the centre. The de-branding notice states that the process of removal of all PMKVY branding should be completed in three days and pictures of proof uploaded. There was a warning that “appropriate penal” action would be taken if this was not done. Vikas informed, “We have had to remove all PMKVY signages from our laboratories and classrooms. This was our first experiment with training unemployed villagers. The whole exercise has been a waste.”

Skill: Basic medical assistance; Centre: Moradabad, UP

About 150 km away in Thakurdwara, another centre, located inside Krishna Mahavidyalaya with lush mustard fields all around, has been locked. Inside, mannequins still lie on dummy hospital beds of the unit set up for basic medical skills training.

Principal Dr Radheshyam Singh said six batches had undergone training here with around 80 per cent attendance. Project in-charge Rajesh Kumar points to a show-cause notice dated April 30, 2025, alleging that “no candidates were present on the day of the visit, while attendance of 50 was marked”.

The show-cause notice from the Skill India Portal lists the “type of discrepancy” as being: candidates not available. It states that considering the “seriousness of the findings,” a reply should be given within five days failing which “strict action” would be taken.

Skill: Handling green hydrogen; Centre: Mathura, UP

On the blacklist were SSCs with one or more of their centres de-commissioned. An illustrative example is a centre run by Skill Council for Green Jobs inside Shri Naval Kishore Pvt ITI in Mathura, where technical training in handling green hydrogen for various industries was being imparted.

SSC CEO Arpit Sharma said the problem arose because, on the inspection day, the trainer fell ill and left early, prompting most candidates to leave as well. “We wrote to NSDC explaining that we had committed no fraud. But the status of the Mathura centre has not been reversed. All our other centres are running smoothly,” Sharma said.

Another common complaint across regions and sectors is that NSDC has sparked confusion by including all 178 TPs and TCs in their covering letters to states, skill missions and regional directors as well as in the blacklist.

Prashant Sharma, head of the All India Training Providers Association (AITPA), said, “Only the name of the TC should have been mentioned where discrepancies were found. Now people think the entire TP, which may run hundreds of centres, has been blacklisted. As a result, TPs on the list are not getting work anywhere.”

Take the case of Delhi-based Edujoin Training Foundation with its centre in MP’s Jhabua on the blacklist. Director Sudhanshu Parida shared the FIR filed against them, alleging “misconduct, criminal misrepresentation and intimidation” and stating that attendance for 26 candidates was fraudulently recorded on the Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system when the centre was found closed.

The FIR, which alleges “criminal breach of trust” states that it was “shocking to discover, that attendance for 26 candidates was fraudulently recorded on the Aaadhar biometric system, whereas the training centre was found to be closed on that day…”

However, Parida said the centre had shut early around noon as it was just before Diwali, while inspectors arrived at 3.30 pm. “If there were no students that day, how would we have biometric attendance records? Because of this FIR, payments for our 11 other centres have stopped. With this blacklist circulated nationwide, we are unable to work anywhere,” he said.

In Assam, meanwhile, onwer of a TC training youth in hotel management says it was shut on inspection day due to heavy flooding. Soon after, they received a suspension order and later learned that an FIR had been filed alleging fraud and forgery. “We haven’t earned a penny from NSDC,” the owner said, adding that in their response they cited “severe rain and flood conditions prevailing for nearly three months”.

The allegations against the Assam centre listed in the show-cause notice was that one, candidates were not available at the time of inspection and that two centres had been “merged” in one building which was against the rules.

Summing up their experience over the past decade after PMKVY was launched in 2010, several NSDC partners said a key challenge was to ensure daily attendance of four to six hours over months. Inspectors, too, told The Indian Express that low attendance and weak capacity-building were common across centres.

One inspector, who regularly inspects centres in Haryana and Rajasthan, said: “We do not find enough trainees in classrooms. If they come, they leave soon and feel there is not much value in the diploma they receive. The scheme needs a reboot.”