PM-SETU Clears Rs 1,194.92 Crore for Five ITI Clusters

The skilling scheme that is rebuilding government Industrial Training Institutes cleared a fresh set of projects on 16 October 2026. At its 6th National Steering Committee meeting, PM-SETU approved five Strategic Investment Plans (SIPs) worth Rs 1,194.92 crore for ITI clusters in Maharashtra, Odisha and Jammu & Kashmir. With these approvals the cumulative investment sanctioned under the scheme reached Rs 3,687 crore.

PM-SETU stands for Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs. The meeting was chaired by Smt. Debashree Mukherjee, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

The five clusters approved

How a cluster is built

Each cluster follows a hub-and-spoke design: one government ITI is the hub and four nearby ITIs are the spokes. Government ITI Kataka leads the Odisha cluster, Government ITI Aundh leads in Pune, and the Jammu and Srinagar clusters are led by the government ITIs in those two cities. The plans are carried out jointly by state governments, industry partners and the participating institutes, and the money goes into modernising infrastructure, adding industry-aligned courses, strengthening trainer capacity, deepening industry engagement and improving employability.

What the Secretary said

Smt. Debashree Mukherjee said the approvals are an important step in implementing PM-SETU and will strengthen ITIs, improve training and increase industry participation. She urged clusters to work towards ISO certification and to include at least one WorldSkills-aligned trade or competency area in their Approved Implementation Plans, and called the progress made by Jammu & Kashmir encouraging.

Training of Trainers

The committee also reviewed Component II of the scheme, the Training of Trainers programme, which is meant to create a pool of industry-ready instructors with up-to-date technical and teaching skills. As of October 2026, 3,744 trainers had been trained through National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs).

Officials from the ministry, the Directorate General of Training, state governments and union territories, industry partners and multilateral development banks took part in the meeting, among them Shri Niranjan Kumar Sudhanshu, Additional Secretary, and Smt. Manasi Sahay Thakur, Joint Secretary.