Startup India Scheme for women & SC/ST entrepreneurs crosses 1 lakh sanctioned loans

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 22 July 2021

According to data from the Ministry of Finance's Department of Financial Services, the dedicated credit scheme for SC/ST and women entrepreneurs-Standup India, which facilitates bank credit between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, has sanctioned 1,16,266 loan applications totaling Rs 26204.49 crore since its inception.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme on April 5, 2016, and it was later extended until 2025 to provide credit to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and one woman borrower per bank branch for the establishment of a green field enterprise in the manufacturing, services, or trading sectors.

The number of applications sanctioned has increased by 27.3% to 91,319 as of March 10, 2020, up from 55,342 as of March 7, 2018. Pratima Bhoumik, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, recently shared the most recent data from the Finance Ministry in Lok Sabha.

Following the announcement in this year's Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the margin money requirement for Standup India loans was reduced from up to 25% to up to 15%. Furthermore, agriculturally related activities were included in the scheme.

 Also, "the government has taken various steps towards effective implementation of the scheme, these, inter alia, include provision for submission for online applications by potential borrowers through www.standupmitra.in portal, hand-holding support, intensive publicity campaign, simplified loan application form, Credit Guarantee Scheme, convergence with State and Central government Schemes wherever feasible, reduction in margin money and inclusion of activities allied to agriculture, etc.," the Bhoumik said in a statement by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

According to data from the Standupmitra portal, the scheme had received 1.35 lakh applications totaling Rs 32,061 crore as of Wednesday.

The scheme has 24,699 handholding agencies and 348 lenders on board, with over 1.51 lakh bank branches linked. The repayment period of the composite loan under the scheme is to be fixed depending on the nature of the activity and useful life of assets purchased with bank loan but not to exceed seven years with a maximum moratorium period of 18 months, according to the scheme.