The Stand up India scheme aims at promoting entrepreneurship among women and scheduled castes and tribes. The scheme is anchored by Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
Stand-Up India Scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise. This enterprise may be in manufacturing, services or the trading sector. In case of non-individual enterprises at least 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.
Features of the Stand Up India scheme:
- The scheme states that each bank branch needs to facilitate two entrepreneurial projects on an average. One for SC/ST and one for a woman entrepreneur.
- The scheme is part of an initiative by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) to promote entrepreneurial projects.
- An amount ranging from Rs 10 lakhs to Rs.1 crore to be provided as a loan, inclusive of working capital for setting up a new enterprise.
- Refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with an initial amount of Rs.10,000 crore.
- Under this scheme, through NCGTC, creation of a corpus of Rs.5000 crore for credit guarantee.
- A RuPay debit card would be provided for the withdrawal of credit.
- Credit history of the borrower would be maintained by the bank so that the money is not used for any personal use.
- Supporting the borrowers by providing comprehensive support for pre-loan training like facilitating the loan, factoring, marketing, etc.
- A web portal has been created to assist people for online registration and support services.
- The main purpose of this scheme is to benefit the institutional credit structure by reaching out to the minority sections of the population by initiating bank loans in the non-farm sector.
- The scheme will also be an advantage for the ongoing schemes of other Departments.
- The Stand Up India scheme will be led by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) along with the involvement of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI). Along with DICCI, there will also be involvement of other sector-specific institutions.
- The designation of Stand Up Connect Centres (SUCC) will be provided to SIDBI and National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
- An initial amount of Rs.10,000 crore will be allotted to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to provide financial aid.
- There will be a pre-loan and an operational phase for this scheme and the system and Officials tend to help people throughout these phases.
- To help the credit system reach out to the entrepreneurs, the margin money for the composite loan will be up to 25 per cent.
- The people who apply for this scheme will be familiarised with the online platforms and other resources of e-marketing, web-entrepreneurship, factoring services and registration.