About the scheme

• The Prime Minister Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for providing affordable Working Capital loans to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown. It was launched in 2020.
• Under the Scheme, vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year. The loans would be without collateral.
• If the vendor repays the instalments in time or earlier, they will develop his credible credit score that makes him eligible for a higher amount of term loan to 20 thousand rupees and so on. 
• On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis. 
• There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 100 per month. 
• The scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors. 
• SIDBI is implementing the scheme.
• The lending institutions under the Scheme include Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, NBFCs, Microfinance institutions and Self Help Group banks. 

Why in News?

• A recent research work by SBI titled PM SVANidhi: Strengthening Country’s Social Fabric through empowering grassroot market mavericks has analysed the transformative impact of PM SVANidhi. This note mentions some notable results of the research.
• PM SVANidhi has seamlessly connected marginalized urban micro-entrepreneurs, breaking down community barriers along the way.
• The report says: “Almost 75% loan beneficiaries come from non-general category, a testament of the innate power of well-intended policy schemes to seed transformative changes.”
• OBCs account for 44% of total disbursement, while SCs/STs account for 22%. 
• 43% of the total beneficiaries are women. 
• The report says: “female share indicates empowerment of entrepreneurial capabilities of urban female, giving SVANidhi a gender equalizer tag.”

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1970506