The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on April 27 has approved the continuation of lending under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) beyond March 2022 till December 2024.
- The focus will be on enhanced collateral free affordable loan corpus, increased adoption of digital transactions and holistic socio-economic development of the Street Vendors and their families.
- Through the Scheme, affordable collateral-free loans are being facilitated to the Street Vendors.
- The Scheme had envisaged to facilitate loans for an amount of Rs. 5,000 crore.
- The new approval has increased the loan amount to Rs. 8,100 crore, thereby providing the Street vendors working capital to further expand their business and making them AtmaNirbhar.
- The proposed extension of the Scheme has been necessitated as the circumstances that led to the launch of the Scheme in June 2020 i.e. the pandemic and related stress on the small businesses, have not fully retracted.
