Mudra Yojana: Loans to micro business down 5.8%; 3 of 4 beneficiaries women

As of January 26, 2018, 106 million loans had been sanctioned under the scheme, according to data on the Mudra portal

Despite a discount on the interest rates women pay, loans sanctioned to them under a national programme meant to encourage “micro” businesses fell by 5.8 percentage points in 2016-17 since the scheme’s launch in 2015-16, according to government data, although three in four loans sanctioned over three years were to women.

 

Loans to women fell to 29 million or 73% of the 39.7 million total loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra–acronym for Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency–Yojana (Prime Minister’s Mudra Scheme) in 2016-17 from 27.6 million or 79% of 35 million in 2015-16, according to a reply by finance minister Arun Jaitley to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) on January 5, 2018.

 

Encouraging women to start small businesses is one of the goals of the programme: The government gives a discount of 25 basis points (a basis point is a hundredth of a percent) on the interest charged on loans to women under the Women Enterprise Programme. A “micro” unit is one that has invested less than Rs 25 lakh in plant and machinery or Rs 10 lakh in equipment, according to a government definition.

 

 

Mudra Loans Per 1,000 Women FY2016-18*
Rank		Female Population 2011 Census	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18*	Total FY2016-18*	Per 1,000 females
	India	604839730	27628265	29146894	18730738	75505897	124.84
1	Puducherry	635442	64932	102069	67044	234045	368.32
2	Odisha	20762082	2104820	2409957	2109631	6624408	319.06
3	Karnataka	30128640	3819070	2888347	2008316	8715733	289.28
4	Tamil Nadu	36009055	4148794	3738516	2157700	10045010	278.96
5	Tripura	1799541	45546	199746	149320	394612	219.28
6	West Bengal	44467088	2076842	3955741	2269023	8301606	186.69
7	Madhya Pradesh	35014503	2192664	2008028	1301385	5502077	157.14
8	Bihar	49821295	2047823	3029715	1871435	6948973	139.48
9	Maharashtra	54131277	2940363	2747979	1696779	7385121	136.43
10	Chhattisgarh	12712303	488968	672626	431159	1592753	125.29

*Note: 2017-18 figures till December 22; Source: Lok Sabha reply, Census 2011, Telangana Statistical Year Book 2017
For dataset of all states, Click here

 

(Vivek is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Reprinted with permission from IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit organisation. You can read the original article here.