Stand Up India Scheme is a Govt of India initiative to promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Caste (SC) / Schedule Tribe (ST) and Women entrepreneurs. Under the scheme, loans in the range of Rs. 10 Lakhs to Rs. 100 Lakhs are provided for setting up new enterprises. Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, launched Stand up India scheme on April 5, 2016.
Background and Objectives:
The “Start up India Stand up India” initiative was announced by the Prime Minister in his address to the nation on August 15, 2015. As a result, the Startup India initiative was launched on January 16, 2016. Later, the Stand Up India programme was launched on April 5, 2016, with a goal to empower SC/ST and women entrepreneurs of India. The main objective of Stand Up India Scheme is to leverage the institutional credit structure to reach out to underserved sectors of the population and provide bank loans for greenfield enterprises setup by SC/ST or Women entrepreneurs in non-farm sector.
The current goal is to facilitate at least two projects per branch of every scheduled commercial bank in India. So, the Stand Up India Scheme is expected to benefit large number of entrepreneurs (2.5 lakh borrowers in 36 months).
Features of Stand Up India Scheme:
- Loan between Rs. 10 to Rs.100 lakh for setting up new enterprises.
- Development of credit history of borrower.
- Refinance through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with an initial amount of Rs.10,000 crore.
- Corpus fund of Rs. 5,000 crore for credit guarantee through National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC).
- Comprehensive support for pre-loan training needs, facilitating loan, factoring, marketing etc.
- Debit Card for withdrawal of working capital.
- Website for online registration and support.
The Stand Up India scheme is an initiative of the Department of Financial Services. It is led by SIDBI with involvement of Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and other sector-specific institutions. The offices of SIDBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) serves as the designated Stand Up Connect Centres (SUCC). The initiative will also develop synergies with ongoing schemes of other Departments.