The ‘Stand Up India’ scheme – promoting entrepreneurship among women

The Government of India is leaving no stone unturned to encourage entrepreneurship in the country and is making resources quite accessible to all those with a zeal to start their own businesses. To promote employment and entrepreneurship among women, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the Govt is planning to launch the ‘Stand Up India ‘ scheme and the Cabinet on Wednesday approved Rs 8,000 crore funds for this scheme . The scheme is expected to benefit at least 2.5 lakh borrowers.

“The Stand Up India campaign is different from the Start Up India campaign. Start Up India is for new entrepreneurs but Stand Up India is a proposal restricted only to scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and women entrepreneurs,” finance minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. “While the Rs 3,000 crore MUDRA Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) will act as hedge against default of Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh loan extended to small entrepreneurs, the Rs 5,000 crore Stand Up India CGF will stand guarantee for Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore loans to be provided to least 2.5 lakh SC/ST and women.”

The Stand Up India scheme will be launched on 16th of January and banks will give loans at the “least applicable rate” of interest and that every bank branch, including  those in the private sector will give loans between Rs 10 lakh and 1 crore to at least one SC/ST and one woman entrepreneur under the scheme.

About the Scheme –

The “Start up India” initiative was announced by the Prime Minister in his address to the nation on 15th August, 2015. The Stand up India component is anchored by Department of Financial Services (DFS) to encourage green field enterprises by SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs.

This Scheme provides for:

• Refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with an initial amount of Rs. 10,000 Crore.
• Creation of a credit guarantee mechanism through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC)
• Handholding support for borrowers both at the pre loan stage and during operations. This would include increasing their familiarity with factoring services, registration with online platforms and e-market places as well as sessions on best practices and problem solving

The major focus of this scheme is on handholding support for both SC/ST and Women borrowers.  The overall intent of the approval is to leverage the institutional credit structure to reach out to these under-served sectors of the population by facilitating bank loans repayable up to 7 years and between Rs. 10 Lakh to Rs. 100 Lakh for green field enterprises in the non farm sector set up by such SC, ST and Women borrowers

The loan under the scheme would be appropriately secured and backed by a credit guarantee through a credit guarantee scheme for which Department of Financial Services would be the settler and National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. (NCGTC) would be the operating agency

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