The CAG audited India's flagship skilling scheme and found that 94% of beneficiary bank account details were blank, null, or literally "11111111". The same photograph was recycled for multiple trainees, training centres were closed during inspections, and when auditors emailed 4,330 certified graduates, most replies came from the training centre staff — not the students.
India spent over ₹10,000 crore on its Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana to "Skill India" and the CAG has now confirmed the scheme skilled nobody but the fraudsters running it. Of all beneficiary records audited, 94.53% had bank account fields that were blank, marked "Null", or filled with zeros. Among the remainder, creative entries included "11111111111", "123456", random letters, and — in one inspired case — a single account number shared across 5,497 different trainees. The same photographs were attached to multiple beneficiaries, because apparently even fraud requires stock photography. Training centres were found closed during surprise inspections, and when auditors tried to verify 4,330 "certified" trainees by email, a third of the messages bounced, and most replies came from the same email address — belonging to training centre staff, not students. The scheme set out to train 500 million people by 2022. It claims 13.2 million. The CAG suggests even that number is aspirational.