Stand-Up India Extended to 2031 With Rs 4,111 Crore Corpus

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has cleared five more years for the Stand-Up India Scheme. The decision, taken on 11 November 2026, keeps the scheme alive up to 31 March 2031. The Ministry of Finance steers it.

What the Cabinet cleared

Stand-Up India exists to put bank credit in the hands of women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe founders who are starting a business of their own for the first time. For the new term the Cabinet sanctioned a credit guarantee corpus of Rs 4,111 crore and fixed a floor of 2.5 lakh fresh borrowers to be reached in the five years ahead.

How the loan is built

• Who may borrow: women, SC and ST founders putting up a brand-new, or greenfield, unit.
• Size of the loan: anything above Rs 10 lakh and up to Rs 1 crore.
• Shape of the loan: either a plain term loan, or a composite loan that bundles working capital together with the term portion.
• Share of project cost: the loan may cover as much as 85 per cent of what the project costs.
• Sectors open: manufacturing, services, trading and activities allied to farming.
• Guarantee cover: 85 per cent of the sanctioned loan, bought at a standard guarantee fee of 0.50 per cent.

The record so far

The scheme opened in April 2016. In the decade since, lenders have arranged loans for more than 2.75 lakh women, SC and ST founders. The fresh target of 2.5 lakh borrowers therefore nearly doubles the number of people the scheme will have served.

Why the decision matters

Collateral and credit history are the two walls a first-generation entrepreneur usually runs into. A guarantee corpus lets a bank lend without that collateral, because the guarantee absorbs the default risk instead. By aiming the money squarely at women and at SC and ST founders, the government is treating credit access as a tool of social inclusion and not merely of enterprise finance. The government expects enterprise creation to spread into communities that formal banking has served thinly, feeding what it calls inclusive economic growth.