National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Internship Programme(NACOIP)

Overview

About NACOIP

Enrolment for the NACO Internship Programme stays open all year, which sounds relaxed until you count the seats. The National AIDS Control Organisation holds no more than 10 interns at any point of time, its Internship Committee meets every month and asks candidates to submit by the 15th, and a file that reaches it without a one page synopsis of the proposed research topic is summarily rejected (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024). The stipend is Rs 8,000 a month, and none of it is paid until the internship is over. Everything else on the checklist is ordinary paperwork.

NACO places each intern inside one of its programme divisions at the Chandralok Building headquarters in New Delhi, under the close supervision of that division's Head of Division. That Head signs the internship project report, the division keeps the attendance record and the work supervision notes, and the completion certificate is issued by the Administration Division on the Head's recommendation. Annexure III names NACO's own working areas rather than a general policy desk: research and evaluation, data analysis, HIV surveillance, monitoring and evaluation, basic services covering HIV testing, prevention of parent to child transmission and HIV-TB, STI and RTI prevention and control, care support and treatment, laboratory services and quality management, voluntary blood donation, blood transfusion services, targeted interventions, communication and mass media work, mainstreaming and inter-ministerial collaboration, project management, and the non-clinical desks listed beside them: legal, gender, right to information, administration including procurement and HR, finance and accounts, and information technology (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

The headquarters internship is built around four things: a briefing from the Administration Division on how NACO is structured and functions, a visit to a local facility run by NACO or a State AIDS Control Society, the attachment to a programme division, and briefing sessions covering NACO's other programme components. NACP has been running since 1992, and its fifth phase carries a target of an 80% reduction in annual new HIV infections and in AIDS related deaths measured against a 2010 baseline (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024). That target is what the division you sit in is working towards.

Read the application form and it becomes clear who NACO is trying to attract. It asks for a proposed topic with a synopsis, for the statistical software you know, and for whether public health forms part of the course you are on. This suits a student arriving with a study to run, more than one looking for general exposure to a ministry.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No annual advertisement governs this one. Enrolment is open all year and the calendar is monthly.

Work backwards from the month you actually want. For a start in the first week of July, the file has to be with NACO by early June to clear the four week rule, and the last monthly submission date falling before that is the 15th of May. Miss it and the June date is already too late for a start that early in July.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

For an undergraduate, two completed years of the degree is the floor: the essential criteria are met only once those two years are behind them at a recognised university; a student enrolled in a regular postgraduate degree or diploma course at a recognised university qualifies from the start. PhD candidates carry one extra requirement: their institution's approval to apply, in the prescribed format, which is the certification and recommendation block printed at the foot of the Annexure IV application form (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Beyond the essential test, the guidelines name what NACO would like to see: candidates from institutions that already have an institutional collaboration with NACO or with a State AIDS Control Society, and candidates with an M.Phil.

The course list at Annexure II is wider than the health disciplines the scheme is usually filed under. It runs from Preventive and Social Medicine, Public Health, Health Management, Statistics, Social Sciences and Social Work through MBA, MBBS, Law, Pharmacy, Nursing, Laboratory Technology, Information Technology and Computer Science, Project and Programme Management, Mass Communication, and Procurement and Supply Chain Logistics, and it ends by saying the list is illustrative and not exhaustive, with other areas open on the approval of the competent authority.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing here is means-tested; four things take a file out of the running, and two of them are missing sheets of paper. A candidate whose internship was previously terminated, or who left before completing the agreed duration, is not considered again. An application submitted without the one page synopsis on the proposed research topic is summarily rejected, and one without the write-up on how the internship benefits both the applicant's studies and the National AIDS Control Programme is not accepted at all. A candidate may also apply only once during a financial year, so a file that fails in April cannot be sent in again in August of the same year (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing rolls over at NACO. The Internship Committee fixes the term when it selects you, the joining date and the period are settled at enrolment, and a change of more than one week in that agreed date is not admissible (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024), so an intern who wants longer is not extending a term but negotiating one before it starts. A second internship at NACO is allowed, and the earlier programme document states that permission in the same breath as the once-a-financial-year limit on applying (NACO Internship Programme), so a returning intern is filing a fresh application rather than renewing an old one.

What you get

Award & benefits

Rs 8,000 a month is the whole of the financial side of this internship, and none of it moves while you are working. The money is released after the internship is completed, after the internship report has been submitted and accepted by the Reporting Officer at NACO, and after the Head of Division certifies satisfactory performance. Nothing else is reimbursed: the guidelines rule out travel and other expenses and say no claims will be entertained. A student who discontinues is paid nothing and gets no certificate (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

NACO provides work space and stationery, and you bring your own laptop and your own internet connectivity (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024). Accommodation sits outside the package as well: the earlier programme document states that interns coming from outside Delhi or New Delhi make their own arrangements for stay, at their own expense (NACO Internship Programme).

Length is worth checking before you commit a semester to it. The April 2024 guidelines put the internship at a minimum of 2 months and a maximum of 6 months, with the duration decided by the NACO Internship Committee (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024). The earlier programme document, which the scheme record on this page follows, sets a shorter term: a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 3 months (NACO Internship Programme). The two do not agree, so confirm the tenure in writing with the Deputy Secretary before you plan around either.

• Stipend: ₹8,000/- per month provided after successful completion and report approval. - Certificate: Issued upon successful completion of the internship and acceptance of the report. - Logistic Support: Workspace, stationery, and photocopying facilities are provided during the internship. - Duration: The internship would be for a minimum duration of 6 weeks and max. duration of 3 months, as per the prerequisites of the study programme. There shall be no bar for candidates to apply for a second internship with NACO.
• NOTE 1: The internship programme is neither a job nor any such assurance for a job in the National AIDS Control Organisation or any other Ministry/ Department in the Government of India.
• NOTE 2: Students who discontinue the internship would not be awarded any certificate by NACO.
• NOTE 3: Interns will need to have their own laptop computers and internet connectivity.
• NOTE 4:Interns coming from outside Delhi / New Delhi have to make their own arrangements for stay/ accommodation at their own expense.

What to prepare

Documents required

Two lists exist here and they are not the same list. One is filed with the application; a shorter, different one is handed over on the day you report to NACO.

The synopsis has a fixed shape at Annexure V: proposed title of the internship project, background and rationale, objectives, methodology, on one page. The write-up at Annexure VI answers a single question in no more than 500 words, on how the internship serves both your academic work and the National AIDS Control Programme.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications go to the Deputy Secretary at NACO, and the guidelines accept either channel: registered or speed post to the Chandralok Building address, or email. Either way an advance copy of the application, the covering letter and the attachments is to be sent by email to naco.internship@gmail.com. The form has to be recommended and authenticated by your educational institution or health organisation before it is sent (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Two rows on the form decide where you land. One gives three numbered slots for your areas of interest, drawn from the domains at Annexure III, to be entered in order of preference; another asks for the single calendar month, or the months, in which you intend to intern. Complete applications should reach NACO at least four weeks before the internship is due to start.

There is nothing to log in to afterwards. myScheme records the application mode for this scheme as offline and lists no application URL, and the guidelines set out no acknowledgement, no reference number and no status page: shortlisting is done within four weeks of an application being received, and only successful candidates are intimated, by email (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024). So the calendar has to do the work a tracker would. The guidelines set two rules side by side without joining them up: the Committee meets every month, and candidates are required to submit the application by the 15th of every month. Read together, a file in before the 15th is what a given month's Committee has in front of it, and an answer either lands inside those four weeks or the file did not carry. Payment has no status screen either, because the stipend is processed only once the internship report has been accepted, which makes the Reporting Officer and the Head of Division the people to ask about it. Before that, the guidelines name one channel and no other: the Deputy Secretary at naco.internship@gmail.com.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Every application is scrutinised by the NACO Internship Committee, which may call the applicant for a personal interaction, face to face or over the phone or another electronic medium, and may verify original documents. How many are taken in a given month is at the Committee's discretion, its decision is final and binding, and no queries are entertained once the selection process closes (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Preference goes to applicants with an excellent academic record, to research scholars, and to candidates bringing project work relevant to NACO's activities or aligned with NACP priorities. The ceiling is structural: however many apply, NACO holds no more than 10 interns at any point of time (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Daily attendance is mandatory, and the certificate depends on it. At the end, a brief internship project report goes to the Head of the Programme Division you were attached to; once approved, three hard sets go to that Head of Division, the SI Division and Admin or HR, with soft copies to the same three (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Data is fenced. Access is granted only after a data confidentiality undertaking has been submitted to the Head of Division. An intern can claim no right to be named as an author on a NACO publication, and may not independently publish reports or articles using NACO data without NACO's approval and without acknowledging the contributors at NACO. Anyone planning to turn the internship into a dissertation chapter should settle that permission in advance.

Either side can stop early. NACO may terminate an engagement at any point without giving a reason, as the Internship Committee decides on the recommendation of the Head of Division. An intern who wants to leave gives one week's notice to the programme division, the SI Division and Admin or HR. The guidelines also state plainly that the internship is neither a job nor an assurance of one at NACO or any other ministry or department, and they carry an equal opportunity commitment covering, among other grounds, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and religion.

Get help

Contact

Deputy Secretary, National AIDS Control Organisation, 9th Floor, Chandralok Building, 36 Janpath, New Delhi 110001. Email naco.internship@gmail.com, which the guidelines name for the advance copy of the application and for queries alike (NACO Internship Guidelines, April 2024).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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