From Skill India to 'scam India': This is real money, not notional loss

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), released in December 2025, has once again sparked debate over the government’s functioning and the scale of irregularities in flagship welfare schemes. Several analysts argue that the findings are too grave to be dismissed, and offer a revealing glimpse into how such programmes actually operate on the ground.

National Herald spoke to Kannan Gopinathan, a former senior bureaucrat who has closely examined the report. Excerpts:

It has been over a month since the CAG report about PMKVY was released and it has generated considerable discussion. What is the situation now, and what could follow?

The report exposes disturbing facts. As many as 95 per cent of the (audited) bank accounts linked to beneficiaries are fake. The same email address was used repeatedly, the same phone numbers were entered, and in several states, even the same photograph appears multiple times. According to the report, the scam runs into nearly Rs 10,000 crore.

But the most serious issue is that this scheme concerns 1 crore young people. A programme that promised to skill and empower them has instead become a massive fraud. The scale and coordination involved — an entire network created to facilitate this — should worry us deeply.

At this stage, a probe by the Public Accounts Committee is absolutely necessary, and we will push for that. These findings must also be taken to the public, particularly the youth, and questions must be raised there as well.

One of the most striking revelations in the report is the meeting supposedly held on 31 February. This points not just to irregularities but sheer incompetence. How could such an error occur in a ‘Digital India’ system? How did the software even accept 31 February?

This system was put in place in 2015. At that time, probably, they were still learning how to do such things. When an entire database is riddled with incorrect information, it is hardly surprising that even impossible dates are accepted.

CAG reports have been released earlier too and have caused uproar. What makes this report different?

This Rs 10,000 crore is not a notional or estimated loss. This is real money. The CAG has not merely projected a figure; it has documented actual expenditure. This is taxpayers’ money, public money, that was released.

Payments were made across the board — for training, for certification, and even for placement of candidates. The money was actually disbursed, which makes this case far more serious.

In the past, such as after the CAG flagged irregularities in the Dwarka Expressway project, auditors were transferred. What can we expect this time?

The report before us is extremely clear and detailed. Credit must be given to this audit team for bringing these facts to light. For the first time, we have a proper performance audit. What happens next is now entirely the government’s responsibility.

Before 2014, CAG reports often triggered political storms. Will there be similar pressure this time?

What a political party does is for the party to decide — how it wants to take these findings to the public. But earlier, such uproars happened because the reports reached people. The media asked questions.

Consider this example: a gym has claimed it trained more than 3,000 people under a skill development programme. This is clearly false. Yet such information is not reaching the public at all. The media must introspect on why this is happening.

We are doing everything we can to ensure these findings go as far as possible.