PM SVANidhi scheme to help bring India in top 3 world economies: Mos Karad

"To achieve this target, we need to speed up money circulation and the PM SVANidhi scheme will play an important role for this," said the MoS

Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Krishanrao Karad on Tuesday said that PM SVANidhi, a loan scheme for street vendors and small traders, will help in achieving the target of bringing India into the world's top three economies in the next few years.

He said Madhya Pradesh was on the second spot in implementation of the PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), which was launched in June 2020. The Union minister was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a zonal conference organised here to review the implementation and progress of the special micro-credit facility for street vendors. Officials of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan participated in the conference. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India, currently the world's fifth largest economy, will be at No. 3 spot in the next few years, Karad said. "To achieve this target, we need to speed up money circulation and the PM SVANidhi scheme will play an important role for this," said the junior finance minister. Under the central scheme, street vendors and small traders are given micro loans in denominations of Rs 10,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000. He said this was the fifth zonal conference on PM SVANidhi organised in Bhopal. Through such conferences, problems of urban bodies, which implement the scheme, and banks, which provide loans, are heard and addressed, Karad said. The Union minister said eight other welfare schemes are associated with PM SVANidhi, which ensure help to the entire family of beneficiaries. Karad informed that Uttar Pradesh leads in implementation of the micro-credit scheme with 90 per cent achievement of its targets, while Madhya Pradesh is in the second spot with 88 per cent success rate. Rajasthan and Kerala have achieved only 40 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively, of their targets, Karad said and added efforts were being made to speed up the implementation of the scheme in low-performing states. He said the Centre provides a 7 per cent grant on interest on loans sanctioned under PM SVANidhi. An official who took part in the conference said state governments have to register vendors through their urban bodies and facilitate disbursement of loans from banks to beneficiaries.