As much as Rs 40,710 crore sanctioned to over 0.18 million accounts under the government’s flagship Stand Up India Scheme during the last seven years since its inception.
Of the funds sanctioned till March 21, 2023, about 80% of the loans have been given to women entrepreneurs. According to official data, Rs 33,152.43 crore was sanctioned to 0.14 million accounts of women while Rs 5,625.5 crore was sanctioned to 26,889 SC accounts. Just Rs 1,932.5 crore was sanctioned to 8,960 accounts of ST members.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the role that Stand Up India initiative has played in empowering the SC/ ST communities and ensuring women empowerment. “It has also boosted the spirit of enterprise our people are blessed with,” he said on Wednesday.
The scheme was launched on April 5, 2016 to promote entrepreneurship amongst women, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories and to help them in starting a greenfield enterprise in manufacturing, services or the trading sector and activities allied to agriculture. It has been extended up to the year 2025.
Finance and corporate affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “It is a matter of pride and satisfaction for me to note that more than 0.18 million lakh women and SC/ST entrepreneurs have been sanctioned loans for more than Rs 40,600 crore.”
Minister of state for finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said the scheme is based on the third pillar of National Mission for Financial Inclusion namely “Funding the unfunded” and has ensured availability of seamless credit flow from branches of Schedule Commercial Banks to SC/ST and women entrepreneurs.