The government’s Stand Up India scheme, which aims at aspiring entrepreneurs from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and women, saw a flat growth in loans sanctioned during the financial year 2023-24 from the previous year. According to the official data, 39,643 loans were sanctioned in FY24 vis-a-vis 39,907 loans sanctioned in FY23 even as it grew 100 per cent from 19,749 loans sanctioned in FY22.
However, a drop was recorded in the number of loans disbursed. As per the data shared by Minister of State in the Finance Ministry Pankaj Chaudhary in the Lok Sabha recently, 17,374 were disbursed in FY24, down by 12 per cent from 19,872 in FY23. Loans disbursed in FY22 under the scheme stood at 12,259.
Launched in 2016, Stand Up India enables credit between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore to at least one SC or ST borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield (first-time venture) enterprise in manufacturing, services, agri-allied activities or the trading sector.
According to the data available on the scheme’s website, Rs 62,390 crore loan has been sanctioned so far of which Rs 54,972 crore has been disbursed. The scheme has 80 lenders onboard.
Apart from credit, borrowers also get access to support in setting up an enterprise with respect to connecting to various agencies with specific expertise such as skilling centres, mentorship support, entrepreneurship development programme centres and district industries centre.
The interest rate levied on credit under the Stand Up scheme is lower than the bank’s base rate (Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate) plus 3 per cent plus tenor premium. The repayment period is seven years with a maximum moratorium period of 18 months.
To boost women entrepreneurship, the MSME Ministry in June this year had launched a Yashasvini campaign to back 1 lakh women entrepreneurs in smaller cities with capacity building, training, handholding and mentoring.