PM-SETU's First Year: 850 ITIs Identified and 14 Clusters Approved - The Skills Layer Under Manufacturing Is Still at the Planning Stage

The development

An official factsheet, reported by IANS on 3 October and by DD India on 5 October, marks one year of PM-SETU (launched 4 October 2025), the scheme to upgrade 1,000 government Industrial Training Institutes through a hub-and-spoke model of 200 hub and 800 spoke ITIs, and to strengthen five National Skill Training Institutes as centres of excellence. The total outlay is Rs 60,000 crore: Rs 30,000 crore from the Centre, Rs 20,000 crore from states and Rs 10,000 crore from industry.

In year one, 850 ITIs have been identified, made up of 172 hubs and 678 spokes. Fourteen ITI clusters have been approved. Thirty-six states and Union Territories have identified clusters and created budget heads, 35 have set up state steering committees, and 26 have begun inviting industry participation. The Directorate General of Training has also introduced 32 new-age courses under the Craftsmen Training Scheme, including artificial intelligence, cyber security and robotics.

What the figures measure

• Identified is not upgraded: 850 ITIs have been selected as hubs and spokes, and 14 clusters have approved plans. The factsheet figures do not say how many ITIs have new equipment, new trainers or new batches running.
• Approved is not funded in full: DD India, which carried the fuller factsheet, reports Strategic Investment Plans for 14 clusters across eight states and one Union Territory involving Rs 3,446 crore. The IANS reports we read did not carry that figure, so treat it as a single-source number.
• Industry participation is the weakest link on the page: 26 states have started inviting industry, but the factsheet figures do not name anchor partners or training commitments in numbers.

Why it matters for manufacturing

India's manufacturing push in semiconductors, defence, electronics and clean energy depends on technicians as much as on capital. The scheme's design, with an anchor industry partner in each cluster and a special purpose vehicle structure, is meant to tie training to what plants actually need. DD India reports that the anchor partner would hold 51 per cent of the vehicle, with the Centre and the state holding 24.5 per cent each; this also appears in one report only.

The test of the scheme is therefore not the count of identified institutes but the first cohort: how many trainees complete the new courses, in which trades, at which plants, and whether employers hire them. The factsheet gives no enrolment, completion or placement figures for the upgraded institutes.

The Techadyant view

This is an administrative milestone, and a useful one: state budget heads, steering committees and approved clusters are the plumbing without which nothing else happens. But the skills layer under India's industrial strategy is still being laid out, not yet producing output. The signals to wait for are named anchor partners per cluster, equipment installed, first batches enrolled and employer-verified placement.