For a six-week internship, a well-drafted offer letter with a signed acceptance is usually sufficient. An agreement earns its place in three situations: the internship runs longer than about three months, the intern will handle sensitive data or customer information, or the work has commercial value you intend to use.
The point of the agreement is not to bind the intern more tightly. It is to write down what happens in the specific cases everyone forgets to discuss — who owns the work, what the intern may say publicly, and what happens if either side wants to stop.
What the agreement adds over an offer letter
- A defined scope of work
- An annexure describing the project, the deliverables and the review points. This is what makes the internship assessable and what protects the intern from becoming general help.
- Detailed confidentiality
- What is confidential, what is not, how long the obligation lasts, and what to do on the last day (return devices, revoke access).
- Explicit IP assignment with a portfolio carve-out
- Company owns the work; intern may display an agreed representation of it. Both halves matter.
- Data protection obligations
- If the intern touches personal data, say what they may and may not do with it, and require the same handling standards as employees.
- Symmetric termination
- Notice both ways. One-sided termination clauses in intern agreements are read exactly as they look.
The sample agreement — copy this
INTERNSHIP AGREEMENT
This Agreement is made on [date] between:
[COMPANY NAME], a company incorporated under the Companies Act, having its registered office at [address] ("the Company"),
and
[INTERN NAME], residing at [address] ("the Intern").
1. ENGAGEMENT
The Company engages the Intern as a [Role] Intern for the period [start date] to [end date]. The scope of work is set out in Annexure A.
2. NATURE OF THE ENGAGEMENT
This is an internship undertaken for learning and practical experience. It does not create an employment relationship and neither party is obliged to enter into one on completion.
3. STIPEND
The Company will pay the Intern a stipend of ₹[amount] per month, payable by the [Nth] of the following month.
4. HOURS, LOCATION AND LEAVE
4.1 Working hours: [hours] on [days].
4.2 Location: [in office at (address) / remote / hybrid].
4.3 Leave: [N] days over the term. Examination leave will be granted on reasonable notice and will not count against this entitlement.
5. SUPERVISION AND REVIEW
The Intern will report to [name, designation]. The Company will conduct a review at the midpoint and at the end of the term, and will provide written feedback on both occasions.
6. CONFIDENTIALITY
6.1 "Confidential Information" means all non-public information of the Company, its clients and its users, in any form, including data, source code, designs, documents, financial information and business plans.
6.2 The Intern will not disclose Confidential Information to any third party, or use it other than for the purposes of this internship, during the term and for [N] years afterwards.
6.3 This clause does not apply to information that is or becomes public other than through the Intern's breach.
6.4 On the last day the Intern will return all Company property and devices, and access will be revoked.
7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
7.1 All intellectual property created by the Intern in the course of the internship, using Company time, data or resources, vests in the Company.
7.2 The Company grants the Intern a non-exclusive right to display [an agreed description of / an agreed redacted extract from] the work in a personal portfolio or CV, provided no Confidential Information is disclosed.
7.3 Work the Intern created before this internship, or outside it and without Company resources, remains the Intern's own.
8. DATA PROTECTION
Where the Intern handles personal data, they will do so only as instructed by the Company, will not copy it to personal devices or accounts, and will report any suspected breach immediately.
9. TERMINATION
9.1 Either party may terminate on [N] days' written notice.
9.2 The Company may terminate immediately for a material breach of clauses 6, 7 or 8, or of Company policy.
9.3 Stipend accrued up to the date of termination will be paid.
10. COMPLETION CERTIFICATE
On completion of the agreed term and deliverables, the Company will issue a completion certificate and, on request, a written reference reflecting the Intern's work.
11. GOVERNING LAW
This Agreement is governed by the laws of India and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at [city].
Signed:
_____________________ _____________________
For [Company] [Intern name]
[Name, designation] Date:
Date:
ANNEXURE A — SCOPE OF WORK
Project: [name]
Deliverables: [list]
Review points: [midpoint date], [end date]
Definition of done: [what completed looks like]Clauses to think twice about
- Non-compete
- A non-compete on an intern is rarely enforceable in India in any meaningful form, and it signals distrust to a candidate at the exact moment you are trying to attract them. Confidentiality does the work you actually need.
- Perpetual confidentiality
- An unlimited term reads as overreach on an internship. Two to three years is normal and is what most counsel will suggest.
- Any bond or deposit
- Do not. It damages your employer brand faster than almost anything else you can put in a document, and it deters the candidates you most want.
- Blanket IP with no portfolio carve-out
- You keep the IP either way. Refusing the carve-out costs you nothing financially and costs you real goodwill with design and engineering candidates, for whom portfolio is career currency.
Frequently asked
Do we need an internship agreement, or is an offer letter enough?+
An offer letter with a signed acceptance is usually enough for a short internship. Use a full agreement when the internship runs beyond about three months, when the intern will handle personal or customer data, or when the work has commercial value you intend to exploit.
Can an intern be asked to sign an NDA?+
Yes, and where they will see real data they should. Keep it proportionate: define confidential information clearly, set a finite term, and carve out anything that is or becomes public. A blanket perpetual NDA on a two-month intern reads as boilerplate nobody thought about.
Who owns the work an intern produces?+
Whoever the agreement says, which is why the clause matters. The normal position is that work created using company time and resources belongs to the company. The version worth writing adds a portfolio carve-out so the intern can show what they did without disclosing anything confidential.
Is a non-compete enforceable against an intern in India?+
Post-engagement non-competes are generally very difficult to enforce in India, and on an intern the attempt mostly signals distrust. Confidentiality and IP clauses protect what you actually need to protect.
Should the agreement be on stamp paper?+
Practice varies by state and by company policy, and it is a question for your counsel rather than a template. What matters more in practice is that both parties have a signed copy and that the terms are ones you would be comfortable explaining.