Stand-Up India Scheme: More than Rs. 25,586 crore loans sanctioned in last 5 years

The Finance Ministry has recently said that almost five years since launch, the Stand-up India scheme has seen loans sanctioned by banks in aggregate of Rs. 25,586 crore to over 1,14,322 accounts.

This scheme was launched on April 5, 2016 to promote entrepreneurship amongst women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category. It is now extended upto the year 2025.The main objective of the scheme is to provide loans for setting up greenfield enterprises in manufacturing, services or the trading sector and activities allied to agriculture by both ready and trainee borrowers.

According to an official release, the total loans sanctioned to women stood at Rs. 21,200.77 crore (93034 accounts); the loans sanctioned to SCs stood at Rs. 3335.87 crore (16258 accounts) and STs at Rs. 1049.72 crore (4,970 accounts).

This scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 1 crore to at least one scheduled caste/scheduled tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch of scheduled commercial banks.