Stand Up India Scheme completes seven years, ₹40,700 cr loans sanctioned

Loans worth about ₹40,700 crore covering 1.8 lakh entrepreneurs have been sanctioned so far under the Stand Up India Scheme, said Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Of the total beneficiaries, 80% are women.

'It is a matter of pride and satisfaction for me to note that more than 1.8 lakh women and SC and ST entrepreneurs have been sanctioned loans for more than ₹40,700 crore," Sitharaman said on the 7th anniversary of the scheme.

Stand Up India Scheme was launched on April 5, 2016 to promote entrepreneurship at the grassroots level focusing on economic empowerment and job creation. The scheme is up to the year 2025.

It facilitates bank loans between ₹10 lakh and ₹100 lakh to at least one Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch of Scheduled Commercial Banks. Loans under the scheme are available for only green field projects, meaning first-time venture of the beneficiary.

Union MoState Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said the Stand-Up India scheme was based on the third pillar of the National Mission for Financial Inclusion namely "Funding the unfunded".