Stand-up India initiative was launched by PM Modi on 5 April 2016 as an attempt to promote entrepreneurship among SC, ST communities and women’s in particular. Along with Start-up India, stand-up India shares similar goals to promote entrepreneurship in rural society through support of funding and guidance. It is part of government’s program to improve bank financing for start-up ventures to support enterprise and urge start-ups to focus on jobs creation.
Stand-up India program focused on sponsoring entrepreneurship among the backward society of India. It offers bank loans from US$ 16,000 to US$ 1 million to Schedule Cast (SC) & Scheduled Tribes or a woman entrepreneur. The companies should be from service, manufacturing or trading sector but not from the farm industry. [1] For non-individual businesses minimum 51% of the shareholding and leading stakes should be held either by SC or ST individual or a woman entrepreneur. Hence this scheme is supported by all Scheduled bank branches and can be approached either directly at the bank branch, via SIDBI’s Stand-Up India portal or the Lead Area/District Manager.
| Recommended for you |
| Access 30+ chapter guide to digital health in India |
| 25 Bank loans for your digital health startup |
| Digital India, Startup India, Startup framework India |
The program is governed by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in collaboration with the Federation of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and several sector-specific institutes all across the country. The premises of SIDBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) are allowed as Stand-Up Connect Centers (SUCC).
Stand-up India website gives a wide range of information to the loan applicant. It involves different sets of questions to be answered to complete the process. The entrepreneur who intends to request for a loan can register on the portal by just visiting the portal and logging in it.
| The typical questions that might influence the loan approval are: |
|---|
| 1. Location of the acquirer |
| 2. Category of the buyer – SC/ST or Woman |
| 3. Nature of venture |
| 4. Availability of business space to operate |
| 5. Support required for preparing a project plan |
| 6. Requirement of particular training or skills |
| 7. Present bank account details |
| 8. Amount of investment made by acquirer |
| 9. Any prior business experience |
| 10. Any help is required for raising margin money |
Stand-up India portal
Stand-up India portal is very interactive. It includes diverse information to assist the loan acquirer, such as
- Technical and Financial Training
- Detailed Project Report preparation
- Workspace recognition
- Money allowance margin
- Raw material seeding
- Discount rates on Bill
- E-com registration
- Registration for tax revenue
So, this portal is intended to get applications forms, obtain and provide information, allow registration, to provide supported links, assisting in tracking & monitoring. Furthermore, it will be refined into an end to end solution.
In a National Industrial & Trade festival arranged by the Dalit Indian Chamber Commerce & Industry (DICCI), MSME ministry has announced that, Under Stand-up India program, each of the 1.25 lakh bank branches would be urged to provide funding support to SC, ST and woman entrepreneurs. That means each branch of a bank will grant a business loan to a Dalit or a Tribal person or a Woman. It will indirectly produce 2.5 lakh new entrepreneurs in the country.
The ministry is executing major schemes like Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), a credit-linked subsidy program for generating employment both in the rural and semi-urban area of the country. PMEGP is providing additional exceptions for SC/ST beneficiaries. For urban & semi-urban SC/ST beneficiaries, limit of capital aid is provided at 25 percent of the project cost while it is 35 percent in rural areas. In all cases, loan acquirer shall bring 10% of the total project cost from his/her investment.
Objectives – Stand-up India initiative
Stand-up India initiative was launched by Honorable PM Modi on 5th April 2016 with a target to promote entrepreneurship in the country, particularly among Woman and SC/ST communities. While starting the program, PM Modi said: “Stand up India focuses on strengthening every Indian and empowering them to start their own business.” The goal is to make Indians job producers instead of job seekers. It encourages set-up of green-field enterprises by SC/ST and women entrepreneurs.
This initiative intends to influence the institutional credit structure to reach out to the underprivileged communities of the country by aiding bank loans. It additionally assists at the pre-loan stage and during its operations. It involves increasing their understanding of factoring services, registration using online platforms as well as events on best management practices and problem resolutions.
To sum it, the prime objective is uplift the backward communities by providing them financial support and promote entrepreneurship among them.
Eligibility – Stand-up India initiative
To be eligible for securing a loan under the Stand-up India initiative, an individual must satisfy the following conditions:
- The loan acquirer must be over 18 years of age.
- The entrepreneur must be from the SC/ST community or be a woman.
- The loans will be granted only for investing in Greenfield schemes, which means that the start-up is the very first one initiated by the acquirer under the trade, services or manufacturing sector.
- If a private company takes the loan, then it is obligatory that a minimum of 51% of the shareholding stake held by an SC or ST individual or a woman.
- The loan acquirer must not be an existing defaulter to any bank or financial institute.
Response – Stand-up India initiative
Stand-up India is a very encouraging initiative for SC/SC communities and especially for women entrepreneurs. It will surely enable a useful environment for start-ups in rural areas. The initiatives announced has undoubtedly reinforced the spirit of woman startup founders and also received a favourable response from SC/ST community.
However, the primary challenge for this initiative is to assist the ventures from ground level. The SC/ST communities are not sure about the process they might have to follow and mainly holding due to their shyness. So the government would need to work on this reserve through different programs for them. Another problem in these initiatives is the complicated compliance norms, and the government needs to make them easier.
To sum it, though Stand-up India is promising step in promoting entrepreneurship, most of the effort needs to put in the active implementation to make sure it reaches masses.
Contact details
One can avail the loan for their businesses or ventures through Stand-up India initiative using the portal assigned.
You can also contact them using the following email for any information or clarification:
There is a toll-free number allocated to answer your queries:1800-180-1111
Image credit: www.istockphoto.com
Your article is really very nice and informative. I come across a blog that’s both equally educative and amusing, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Now i’m very happy I came across this in my search for something relating to this. You can refer https://studycafe.in/forums for more articles like this.