Prime Minister Narendra Modi has acknowledged the role that Stand Up India initiative has played in empowering the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) communities and ensuring women empowerment. Stand Up India completed seven years on Wednesday.

The official handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Wednesday, “Today we mark #7YearsofStandUpIndia and acknowledge the role this initiative has played in empowering the SC/ ST communities and ensuring women empowerment. It has also boosted the spirit of enterprise our people are blessed with.”

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Stand Up India Scheme was launched on April 5, 2016, to promote entrepreneurship at the grass-roots level focusing on economic empowerment and job creation. The scheme is up to the year 2025.

It facilitates bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 100 lakh to at least one Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch of Scheduled Commercial Banks. Loans under the scheme are available for only green field projects, meaning first-time venture of the beneficiary.

On the seventh anniversary of the flagship central initiative, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said loans worth about Rs 40,600 crore covering 1.8 lakh entrepreneurs have been sanctioned so far under the Stand Up India Scheme. Of the total beneficiaries, 80 per cent are women.

“It is a matter of pride and satisfaction for me to note that more than 1.8 lakh women and SC and ST entrepreneurs have been sanctioned loans for more than Rs 40,600 crore,” Sitharaman said on the seventh anniversary of the scheme.

The finance minister said that the scheme has provided wings to aspiring entrepreneurs to showcase their entrepreneurial skills.

“The scheme has created an eco-system which facilitates and continues to provide a supportive environment for setting up green field enterprises through access to loans from bank branches of all Scheduled Commercial Banks. Stand-Up India Scheme has proved to be an important milestone in promoting entrepreneurship among SC, ST and women,” Sitharaman said.