India Extends Stand-Up Scheme to Support 2.5L Women Entrepreneurs

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Thursday, 12 November 2026

The government announced the extension of the Stand-Up India Scheme for another five years, reaffirming its commitment to encouraging entrepreneurship among women and individuals from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the continuation of the scheme until March 31, 2031, ensuring continued financial support for aspiring entrepreneurs from these communities.

The extended scheme aims to support an additional 2.5 lakh entrepreneurs over the next five years by improving access to institutional credit. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the decision while briefing the media on the outcomes of the Cabinet meeting.

Key Highlights:

• The government extends the Stand-Up India Scheme until March 31, 2031, to promote entrepreneurship
• The scheme aims to provide financial assistance to an additional 2.5 lakh women, SC and ST entrepreneurs
• The Union Cabinet approves a Rs 4,111 crore Credit Guarantee Corpus to strengthen lending support for new businesses

The scheme has already helped 2.75 lakh entrepreneurs belonging to the women, SC and ST community to avail of loans since being launched in April 2016.

The goal of Stand-Up India Scheme was to provide loans from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore from the Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) loan applicant and one woman borrower to establish a new business in greenfield manufacturing, services or trading sector and also in activities allied to agriculture in every bank branch.

Under the scheme, loans of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore were provided at the lowest applicable rate of the respective bank (rating) for the concerned category not above Base rate (B-Rate) +3% + Tenor premium with maximum moratorium period of 18 months and repayment period of 7 years.

Loans are available under this scheme in the sectors as listed below: Manufacturing, Services, trading and agri allied activities with 85 per cent loan amount covered by the standard rate of guarantee fee of 0.50 per cent.

The government will make credit available to women, SC and ST entrepreneurs, which would allow them to establish businesses and boost entrepreneurship in the underserved population, and thus help inclusive economic growth, he added.

The Union Cabinet has also approved a Credit Guarantee Corpus of Rs 4,111 crore to enable lending under the extended scheme. The guarantee mechanism is expected to motivate the financial institutions to extend financial support to the eligible entrepreneurs as it will minimize the risk involved in the financial institutions when it comes to providing financial support to people who are starting new businesses.

In the extended framework, eligible borrowers are available with loans either in the form of term loans or as composite loans for working capital and term loans. The financial assistance may help to cover up to eighty-five per cent of the overall cost of the project, which can assist entrepreneurs in launching new businesses, either in the manufacturing, services, trading or agriculture allied sectors.