The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has received over five lakh applications under the 'PM SVANidhi' scheme which aims to provide street vendors loans of up to Rs 10,000 to restart their business post the Covid-19 lockdown.
The number of loan sanctioned and applications received under 'PM SVANidhi' scheme have crossed one lakh and five lakh respectively within 41 days of commencement of the lending process, said the Ministry in a statement.
PM SVANidhi was launched by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry June 1 to provide affordable working capital loans to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.
Under the scheme, vendors can avail of a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 which is repayable in monthly installments in a year.
This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors who had been vending on or before March 24 this year in urban areas, including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas.
"The PM SVANidhi envisages bringing 'banks at the doorsteps' of these 'nano-entrepreneurs' by engaging the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and the micro-finance institutions (MFIs) as lending institutions in addition to scheduled commercial banks -- public and private, regional rural banks, cooperative banks, SHG banks, etc," the statement said.
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