CSR internship: what it is, what it is not, and where to find one

What is a CSR internship?

Under section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, a company must spend on corporate social responsibility (CSR) if, in the preceding financial year, it had a net worth of ₹500 crore or more, a turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or a net profit of ₹5 crore or more. That is how the Ministry of Corporate Affairs states the thresholds in the FAQs on its National CSR Exchange Portal.

The same FAQs say the board must ensure the company spends, every financial year, at least two per cent of its average net profits of the three preceding years. The meaning of a CSR internship follows from that duty. An intern on that money works where it is spent: in the company's own CSR team, in a foundation the company has set up, or in an outside implementing agency that carries out the project for it.

The FAQs also say "CSR expenditure cannot be incurred on activities beyond Schedule VII of the Act", and they exclude activities in the company's normal course of business, activities designed only for its own employees, and, with one sports exception, anything outside India.

The FAQs call CSR "a Board-driven process" in which the government "has no direct role in the approval and implementation" of projects. The decision to take an intern sits with each company, or with the agency it pays.

Is a CSR internship the same as an NGO internship?

It is the same desk when the company works through an implementing agency: the intern sits in a registered non-profit carrying out the company's project. In the company's own CSR team it is a corporate placement. Rule 4(1) of the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014, as the ministry's FAQs set it out, lists who can be that agency: a section 8 company, a registered public trust or a registered society, among others.

An outside non-profit of that kind must show, in the FAQs' words, "an established track record of at least three years in undertaking similar activities", and the FAQs require it to be registered under what were sections 12A and 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. That Act was repealed from 1 April 2026 and replaced by the Income-tax Act, 2025, where the donation deduction formerly in section 80G sits in section 133, as the guide to the 80G deduction for donors sets out.

An implementing agency must register on the ministry's MCA21 portal, by filing e-form CSR-1, before it takes on any new CSR project after 1 April 2021, and the registration gives it a CSR Registration Number. A company that runs a project itself files no CSR-1.

For an intern, the difference is who the work answers to. A CSR project answers to a company's board, and the FAQs say mere disbursal of money "does not amount to spending unless the implementing agency utilises the whole amount". Ask at interview what reporting to the company the project involves. The wider picture is in the guide to how NGO internships work.

What does a CSR intern do in a company's CSR team?

Planning, coordinating and reporting on the company's social projects, in the listings that describe it. A professional services firm's CSR intern listing for Mumbai on Unstop, updated on 14 February 2026 and since closed, asked the intern to design and manage year-round volunteering initiatives, help business teams plan their CSR engagement, and coordinate between employees, NGOs and internal teams.

A second firm's CSR intern listing on Prosple, with an apply-by date of 13 August 2025, asked for help with proposals, bids and tenders, with "measuring, capturing, and reporting across CSR indicators", and with decks and reports. It wanted a background in development studies, sustainability management, social work or sociology, preferably a final-year master's student or an experienced candidate.

The ministry's FAQs say the involvement of employees in CSR projects "cannot be monetized" as CSR spending, and that corporates "should be encouraged to involve their employees in CSR activities".

Is the PM Internship Scheme a CSR internship program?

Only in how its 2024 pilot was funded and how its companies were chosen. A Press Information Bureau note on the pilot project, posted on 4 October 2024, says the partner companies were "identified on the basis of the average of CSR expenditure of the last three years", and that the scheme lets interns "experience real-world business environments". Neither that note nor the April 2026 release describes the work as a company's CSR projects.

The 2024 note set the assistance at "Rs. 5,000 per month, of which Rs. 4500 will be disbursed by the government, and Rs. 500 per month will be paid by the company from its CSR funds". The same note set the internship at 12 months, at least half of it in "the actual working experience/ job environment, and not in the classroom".

A release of 22 April 2026 sets the monthly support at a minimum of ₹9,000, without saying how that is split between the government and the company. It opened the pilot to final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students with an NOC from their institution, for ages 18 to 25, and says more than 300 companies have taken part. Eligibility in full is in the guide to who can apply to the scheme.

The scheme's own FAQ page still describes the pilot as first set up, at ₹5,000 a month for ages 21 to 24 over 12 months. Look up the terms in force on pminternship.mca.gov.in when you apply.

Is every internship tagged "CSR" on a job site CSR work?

No. On 25 September 2026, Internshala's CSR internship page, and its Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore versions, each carried a message beginning "No more results found matching the profile", followed by "Check out other opportunities below!" The listings under it were other roles, shown because nothing matched the CSR filter.

The all-India page opened with an inside sales role at a travel company; the Delhi page with a travel consultant, a telecalling role and a founder's office role; Mumbai's with online reputation management and real estate sales. A few roles at trusts and foundations appeared in between. Boards change daily, so this is a dated snapshot. Other boards file CSR roles under wider labels: Unstop's category is "CSR & Sustainability".

A role that sells event sponsorships to companies is sales work, whatever its title says. Rule 2(1)(d) of the CSR Rules, as the ministry's FAQs set it out, excludes "Sponsorship activities for deriving marketing benefits for products/services" from CSR, and the FAQs add that companies "shall not use CSR purely as a marketing or brand building tool".

The initials cause a second mix-up. CSR is also the short name of the Centre for Social Research, a New Delhi non-profit founded in 1983 whose website has a "Work/ Intern with Us" page. An internship there is an NGO internship with an organisation of that name.

Before you apply to a listing that calls itself CSR work, ask which company's CSR project it serves, what the project is and, if the host is an agency, its CSR Registration Number. A listing that cannot name the company may still be a worthwhile NGO internship, but it is a different line on a resume.

Where can you find a CSR internship in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore?

In each city at least one institution puts CSR work in its own published documents: in the NCR, the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, a Ministry of Corporate Affairs body at IMT Manesar in Gurugram; in Mumbai, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences; in Bengaluru, Bengaluru City University's social work fieldwork. Beyond those, you reach CSR work by tracing a company's projects to the agency that runs them.

Start with companies that operate in your city. The first proviso to section 135(5) of the Companies Act, as the ministry's FAQs quote it, says a company "shall give preference to local areas and the areas around where it operates". The FAQs call that preference "only directory and not mandatory", and say some Schedule VII activities, such as art and culture, apply across the country.

Delhi and the NCR

For a CSR internship in Delhi and the NCR, the published route is the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), which describes itself as "an autonomous body under the aegis of Ministry of Corporate Affairs". Its Guidelines for Internship list a Centre of Excellence in CSR and Corporate Citizenship among the verticals that take interns. Postal applications go to IMT Manesar in Gurugram, Haryana, and the guidelines allow hybrid work at the institute's discretion.

The guidelines take full-time students of social sciences, economics, commerce, management, social work, law and other listed courses, and young professionals within six months of finishing their studies who are not in other employment. The minimum period is one month, extendable to six. Students apply online or send Form A with a recommendation from the head of their institution, from the institution's official email ID.

IICA's online application form asks for a proposed topic and three Google Drive links, each set so that anyone with the link can view it: the recommendation letter, your CV and a "Synopsis of Proposed Research Work". The guidelines cap that synopsis at 1,000 words, covering the sector, the method, the issues to be researched and the probable outcomes, and say the final topic is decided after discussion.

Interns are entitled to "an honorarium of Rs. 10,000/- per month", though the selection committee can also recommend an unpaid place. Seats are few: the guidelines cap intake at 10 a month, extendable to 15, across all verticals. The table for the Summer Cycle 2026 listed a stream on CSR, ESG and sustainability, open to students of all streams, with 1 to 3 interns. The non-profit side of the capital is mapped in Delhi's NGO internships.

Mumbai

For a CSR internship in Mumbai, the published documents that name CSR come from two social work schools. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) places first-year social work students with an organisation for "fifteen hours of fieldwork over two specified days a week", according to its fieldwork page.

TISS also runs the TISS-Tata Motors Fellowship for Development Practice, set up in 2015, which works "closely with the company CSR teams". It supports young social work professionals, so it is a route after the degree and not an internship. The College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, lists "Corporate Social Responsibility" among the employment areas on its MSW page. The city's wider options are in NGO internships in Mumbai.

Bangalore

For a CSR internship in Bangalore, the published route is social work fieldwork. Bengaluru City University's MSW regulations, in force from the academic year 2025-26 for all its social work departments and affiliated colleges, keep students out of industry placements in the first two semesters. They then refer to students "placed for concurrent field work in industries during the third semester", who move to hospitals, government bodies, NGOs or development projects in the fourth.

The same syllabus carries a 64-hour elective on corporate social responsibility, SPT-4.4C, covering section 135 and Schedule VII. Agencies are allotted by the department or college, though the regulations say students are also responsible for securing permission.

How do you trace a company's CSR projects to the people who run them?

Start from the company's own disclosures. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs FAQs say that, under Rule 9 of the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014, the board "shall mandatorily disclose" on the company's website, if it has one, the composition of the CSR Committee, the CSR Policy and the projects approved by the board. Those pages name the work, and sometimes the partner, that an intern would join.

1. Open the company's website and find the CSR page with its policy, committee and list of approved projects. The FAQs say every approved project must be disclosed there, whatever its size.
2. Read the annual report on CSR in the board's report, which Rule 8(1) requires. Where impact assessments were done, the FAQs allow a web link and an executive summary in that report.
3. Note the implementing agency named against a project in your city, if one is named, and the project's subject.
4. Check the agency: its CSR Registration Number, its registration as a section 8 company, trust or society, and its record. The lookups are in how to verify that an NGO is real.
5. Write to the agency's programme staff, naming the company's project, what you study and the weeks you are free.

Which CSR route fits your course?

Judge each route on five things: who supervises you, whether it pays, whether your college will count it, whether it builds the technical skills of your own subject, and how easily you can verify it. No route wins on all five.

• A company's CSR team or foundation. You learn how a board-approved project is planned and reported, and you can verify the host from its Rule 9 disclosures. Pay, credit and supervision are the company's call; the ministry's CSR FAQs do not mention interns. It loses on access: the company decides whether to take interns at all, and both listings quoted above have closed.
• An implementing NGO. Supervision comes from the agency running the project, and the company's disclosure plus the agency's CSR-1 registration make it easy to check. Fieldwork rules such as Bengaluru City University's list NGOs among placements, which helps with credit. Pay is the agency's decision. It loses on subject skills unless the project happens to need yours, such as data work.
• The IICA internship. A faculty member or senior staff member is assigned as guide, the honorarium is ₹10,000 a month, and the certificate carries a grade. It is a Ministry of Corporate Affairs body, which makes it easy to verify. It loses on seats and place: 10 a month across all verticals, based at Manesar unless hybrid work is allowed.
• College fieldwork. Credit is built in and the college supervises alongside the agency, so verification is the department's job. None of the fieldwork rules quoted above mentions pay, and it suits social work students only. It loses on choice, because the department allots the agency (more in the guide to social work internships for students), and at Bengaluru City University industry placements come only in the third semester.
• Going straight to a non-profit with a programme of its own. Pledge A Smile Foundation (the publisher of this guide) runs an online internship that is open to students of any stream and free to apply to and to do. Interns own a weekly target, send a weekly report and get feedback on it. There is a performance-based stipend and a certificate on completion. It does not teach subject-specific technical skills.