Pm Modi To Disburse SVANidhi Loans To Street Vendors

BACKGROUND

• Modi government disbursed over Rs. 130 crore loans to street vendors in 11 weeks, as quoted by SBI top lender.
• Modi government's micro-credit scheme – PM SVANidhi – for nano entrepreneurs such as street vendors has disbursed 1,36,850 loan applications involving Rs 136.36 crore till date, as per the available data from the scheme.
• PM SVANidhi has already received more than 14.22 lakh loan applications out of which 5,21,304 were sanctioned – 406 per cent up from 1,02,832 sanctioned applications as on August 12. Also, the sanctioned amount as on September 21 stood at Rs 518.66 crore, as per the real-time data available on the PM SVANidhi portal.
• The scheme was started in June 2020 to offer collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs 10,000 of one year to around 50 lakh street vendors in India.

LENDERS THAT WERE INVOLVED

• The majority of the applications so far have been received by the public sector banks. Out of the total sanctioned applications, over 4.85 lakh applications were sanctioned by public lenders.
• SBI followed by Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Punjab National Bank were the top lending institutions.
• Among the top beneficiary states were Uttar Pradesh wherein 90,496 applications were sanctioned. Madhya Pradesh with 164,969 sanctioned loans, Telangana with 94,429 sanctioned applications, Gujarat with 51,315 sanctioned applications and Maharashtra with 18,601 sanctioned applications were the other top states.

DETAILS OF THE SCHEME

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with beneficiaries of 'PM SVANidhi scheme', which was launched in June to help poor street vendors hit by COVID-19 pandemic, from Uttar Pradesh via video conferencing.
• The PM Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme was launched on June 1 to help street vendors resume their livelihood activities.
• He will virtually distribute loans to nearly 300,000 street vendors under the PM SVANidhi Scheme – known as the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi Yojana.
• The scheme, which started processing loans on July 2, 2020, provides interest subsidy at 7 per cent per annum as incentives to businesses for making regular repayment of the loan.
• Moreover, there is also a provision of up to Rs 100 per month in cash backs on undertaking prescribed digital transactions. The vendors would also be eligible for the enhanced limit in their next cycle of loan provided there is timely or early repayment of the existing loan.

RESULTS OF THE SCHEME

• Till date, a total of more than 24 lakh applications have been received under the scheme, out of which, more than 12 lakhs have been sanctioned and about 5.35 lakh loans disbursed, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
• In Uttar Pradesh, more than 6 lakh applications have been filed, out of which, about 3.27 lakh have been sanctioned and 1.87 lakh loans disbursed, it said.
• The PM's interaction will be witnessed by beneficiaries of the scheme from across the state. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also be present during the exercise, it added.
• “For the first time, a network of millions of street vendors has been truly connected to the system, they have got an identity,” PM Modi had said earlier this month in interaction with street vendors from Madhya Pradesh. However, street vendors have urged the government to enhance the credit limit by more than 2X.
• “The amount is not sufficient. It should have been around Rs 25,000 p.a. Lending to street vendors has been a big challenge despite so many years after independence …While there are around 1 crore street vendors in India but even 50 lakh target is good enough as it has definitely given a boost to organizing street vending in India,” Arbind Singh, National Coordinator, National Association of Street Vendors of India had recently told Financial Express Online.

WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ABOUT THIS SCHEME, DO YOU THINK TIS WOULD BE BENEFICIAL FOR THE STREET VENDORS? MENTION YOUR VIEWS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!