The Cabinet has approved the “Stand Up India Scheme” to promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Caste/Schedule Tribe and Women.

The schemes provides for composite loans by banks between ₹ 10 lakh and upto ₹ 100 lakh for setting up a new enterprise in the non-farm sector. These loans would be eligible for refinance and credit guarantee cover.

A credit guarantee fund of ₹ 5,000 crore for providing guarantee cover for loans under Stand Up India in next five years has been approved. Provision of initial capital of ₹ 500 crore to the corpus in FY 2016-17 has been made.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Credit guarantee for targeted entrepreneurship under Stand Up India expands refinance and loan cover for SC/ST and women. Stand Up India establishes targeted bank lending for new non farm enterprises by Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and women beneficiaries, requiring loans to meet prescribed thresholds and making those loans eligible for refinance support and credit guarantee coverage through a dedicated credit guarantee fund backed by an initial capital contribution to the corpus.