Apart from financial support, Scheme provides guidance, training and specific expertise viz; Skilling Centres, Mentorship support, Entrepreneurship Development Program Centres, District Industries Centre, among others to marginalized sections.

The Stand-up India Scheme was launched on 05^th April, 2016. The objective of the Stand-Up India Scheme was to provide loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) of value between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and one woman borrower per Bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise in manufacturing, services or trading sector and also for activities allied to agriculture.

The Scheme provided loans of value between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs.1 Crore at the lowest applicable rate of the bank for that category (rating), not exceeding base rate MCLR+3%+ Tenor premium, with a repayment period of 7 years with a maximum moratorium of up to 18 months.

Apart from linking prospective borrowers with Banks for loans, the online portal (www.standupmitra.in) provided guidance to prospective SC, ST and Women entrepreneurs in their endeavor to set up business enterprises, starting from training to filling up of loan applications as per Bank requirements. The portal also facilitated step by step guidance for connecting prospective borrowers to various agencies with specific expertise viz; Skilling Centres, Mentorship support, Entrepreneurship Development Program Centres, District Industries Centre, together with addresses and contact number.

The increase in number of accounts and amount sanctioned to SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs under Stand-Up India Scheme since April 2022 till March, 2025 is tabulated below:

Increase in number of loan accounts and amount sanctioned to SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs since April 2022 till March 2025
SC		ST		Women (General)		Total
No of loan A/Cs	Sanctioned Amt. (Cr.)	No of loan A/Cs	Sanctioned Amt. (Cr.)	No of loan A/Cs	Sanctioned Amt. (Cr.)	No of loan A/Cs	Sanctioned Amt (Cr.)
30145	6437.59	9625	2037.15	86738	20521.41	126508	28996.15
Source: SIDBI

This information was given by Union Minister of Finance Smt  Nirmala Sitharaman in a reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Access to credit for marginalized entrepreneurs expands through targeted loan-linked support and institutional facilitation under the scheme. Stand-Up India Scheme enables targeted credit for greenfield enterprises led by SC, ST and women by requiring scheduled commercial bank branches to sanction loans within a prescribed band, subject to bank pricing limits, repayment tenor and moratorium rules, and by providing an online portal plus linkages to skilling, mentorship and enterprise-development centres to guide applicants from training through loan application and agency referrals.