PM SVANidhi Scheme: Modi interacts with beneficiaries, hails banking staff for providing hassle-free service

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday distributed loans to nearly 300,000 street vendors under the PM SVANidhi Scheme (Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi Yojana) via video conferencing.

PM Modi hailed the banking staff across the country for their hassle-free services to the street vendors who availed the loan without any lengthy paper work.

The Prime Minister held a brief conversation with three street vendors from Uttar Pradesh. Vendros like Preeti, Arvind momo seller, Vijay Bahadur chana seller apprised the PM on how the PM SVANidhi Scheme has helped them gain livelihood in an honourable manner. They also told the PM that the loan disbursed under the PM SVANidhi Scheme was a paperless and hassle free affair. These street Vendros have also used technology and digital payment to maintain cashless transaction and at the same time maintain social distancing.

The PM SVANidhi Scheme was launched under the ambit of ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’. It aims at facilitating collateral free working capital loans upto Rs 10,000 of 1 year tenure, to about 50 lakh street vendors in the urban areas, including those from the surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas, to resume their businesses post COVID-19 lockdown. Incentives in the form of interest subsidy of 7% per annum on regular repayment of loan, cashback upto Rs 1,200 per annum on undertaking prescribed digital transactions and eligibility for enhanced next tranche of loan have also been provided.

PM SVANidhi Scheme envisages bringing ‘Banks at the door steps’ of these ‘nano-entrepreneurs’ by engaging the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and the Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) as lending institutions in addition to Scheduled Commercial Banks - Public & Private, Regional Rural Banks, Cooperative Banks, SHG Banks etc. The onboarding of the vendors on digital payment platforms is a very important component to build the credit profile of the vendors to help them become part of the formal urban economy.

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the implementation partner for the scheme. A graded guarantee cover is provided, on portfolio basis, to these lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) to encourage lending to street vendors.

The street vendors mostly operate their businesses on very thin margins. The micro-credit support under the scheme is expected to provide not only major relief to such vendors but also help them climb the economic ladder. Use of an integrated IT Platform (pmsvanidhi.mohua.org.in), Web Portal and Mobile App, has enabled the Scheme to extend its reach and benefits to this segment of society with the objective of minimum government and maximum governance.