An amount of ₹21.62 crore had been distributed to over 98 people under the Stand Up India scheme in Mysuru district in the past year. Most of the beneficiaries have already commenced their units thanks to the financial aid from the banks.
K.N. Shivalingaiah, Chief Manager, Lead Bank, State Bank of India, told The Hindu that an amount of ₹20.09 crore had been given to 72 women entrepreneurs in the district while an amount of ₹1.30 crore had been given to five women minorities. One woman entrepreneur from the Other Backward Class category was given an amount of ₹23 lakh. Besides this, he said, that an amount of ₹4.55 crore was given to 17 SC entrepreneurs while ₹55 lakhs was given to three ST persons in the district in the last one year. He claimed that Mysuru stood second in the State in disbursement of loans under the scheme.
Mr. Shivalingaiah said that the Stand Up India scheme aims at promoting entrepreneurship among women and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It will facilitate two entrepreneurial projects on an average of one for each category (Women and SC/ST) of entrepreneurs per bank branch.
Credit guarantee system
A credit guarantee system would also be implemented through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC), which will act as the operating agency for financial aid, Mr. Shivalingaiah said, and added that the banks will personally guide each entrepreneur through the pre-loan and operational phases.
Loan amounts ranging from from ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore will be granted to beneficiaries which will be repayable up to seven years. The scheme will also familiarise entrepreneurs with factoring services, e-market places and registration with online platforms and other aspects of web entrepreneurship, he said.
Stand Up India is among the various financial inclusion and social security schemes introduced by the government. The intent of the proposal is to leverage the institutional credit structure to reach out to these under-served sectors of the population by facilitating bank loans in the non-farm sector set up by such SC, ST and women borrowers, the manager said.
Teething troubles
Mr. Shivalingaiah expressed confidence of providing loans to over 250 people in 2017-18. He said that there were teething problems this year as many banks were not completely aware of the scheme.
He added that lands were allotted to many entreprenrurs by the KIADB and the District Industries Department had selected candidates under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP). Hence, more number of women and members of SC and ST communities may approach banks for loans under the scheme. Banks have been asked to sanction loans quickly after obtaining necessary documents from beneficiaries.
