About:

PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods which have been severely affected due to COVID-19 induced lockdown.

 Objectives of the Scheme

• To facilitate working capital loan up to Rs 10,000 at subsidized rate of interest; 
• To incentivize regular repayment of loan; and 
• To reward digital transactions. 

Key features of the Scheme

• Initial working capital of up to Rs 10,000/- 
• Interest subsidy on timely/ early repayment @ 7% 
• Monthly cash-back incentive on digital transactions 
• Higher loan eligibility on timely repayment of the first loan.
• No collateral security is required.

Lending Institutions: 

Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Micro-Finance Institutions and SHG Banks.

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the implementation partner for the scheme.

Why in News?

• Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Swiggy to onboard street food vendors on its e-commerce platform. This move is a part of the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s Atmanibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme.
• An updated and modified version of PM SVANidhi Dashboard, which facilitates users not only with a better granular view of the scheme’s performance but also with additional tools for comparisons, has also been launched.

References:

1. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1661766
2. https://pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in/Default/ViewFile/?id=FAQEng.pdf&path=MiscFiles