PM to launch 'Stand up India' scheme for loans to SC/STs, women on April 5

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday launch the 'Stand up India' scheme under which banks will give loans of up to Rs 1 crore to SC/ST and women entrepreneurs.

"Prime Minister will be launching the Stand Up India scheme and a web portal for the scheme on April 5, at Noida," a finance ministry statement said.

The event would be attended by Governor, Uttar Pradesh, Union Finance Minister, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism and Union Minister of State for Finance, among others.

The 'Stand up India Scheme' is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and women by giving loans in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore for setting up a new enterprise.

"The scheme is expected to benefit large number of such entrepreneurs, as it is intended to facilitate at least two such projects per bank branch on an average one for each category of entrepreneur," the statement added.

SC/ST and women entrepreneurs who avail loan would be given a RuPay Debit Card for withdrawal, besides comprehensive support like pre-loan training, facilitating loan, factoring and marketing.

There would be a Rs 10,000 crore refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) will create a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.

The government will create a web portal for online registration and support services and also prepare a credit history of borrowers.

"The intent of the proposal is to leverage the institutional credit structure to reach out to these under-served sectors of the population by facilitating bank loans in the non-farm sector set up by such SC, ST and women borrowers," the statement said.

During the launch, 5,100 e-rickshaws would be distributed by Bhartiya Micro Credit (BMC) under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna scheme.

In addition, the recipients will also be covered under Pradhan Matri Jan Dhan Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana and eight other significant schemes. "The idea is to facilitate the upgradation of pedal rickshaw pullers into e-rickshaw owners and help create threefold increment in their income.

Credit for all these facilities are being provided under Mudra Scheme," said Vijay Pandey, MD, Bhartiya Micro Credit.

Besides, customers will also be able to book e-rickshaws through Ola mobile app and make online payment via Freecharge, which will be integrated under the Digital India initiative.

SIDBI would engage with the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various institutions. The offices of SIDBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) shall be designated Stand Up Connect Centres, the statement said.

Stand up India is among the various financial inclusion and social security schemes introduced by the government.

Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, over 21.3 crore accounts have been opened, while under the Mudra Yojana loans over Rs 1.22 lakh crore has been disbursed.