The ‘Stand-Up India Scheme’ is related to which one of the following issues?

Correct — C, Promoting entrepreneurship amongst women, SC and ST communities. Stand-Up India was launched on 5 April 2016 and works through bank branches: each scheduled commercial bank branch is expected to lend between ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore to at least one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower, for a greenfield enterprise in manufacturing, services or trading. The target is a first-time entrepreneur from a group that banks have historically underserved, which is exactly what the option states.

• (a)Social security during old age — Old-age security runs through the Atal Pension Yojana and the pension component of the National Social Assistance Programme, not through a bank-credit scheme.
• (b)Providing technical knowhow to young, educated or skilled workers from rural areas — Skilling for rural youth belongs to programmes such as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana; Stand-Up India supplies credit, not training.
• (d)Insurance cover to people in the age group of 18–50 years — That age band belongs to Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, the life-insurance scheme for account holders aged 18 to 50.

Formal credit is rationed by collateral and by track record, and a first-generation entrepreneur from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe household, or a woman without property in her name, usually has neither. Stand-Up India answers that by putting an obligation on the branch rather than an application queue on the borrower, and by pairing the loan with hand-holding support and a credit-guarantee backstop.

Scheme items are best sorted by instrument, not by name. Ask what the scheme actually hands over: credit, an insurance cover, a pension, a skill certificate or a subsidy. Stand-Up India hands over credit, so any option about training, insurance or pensions is out before you consider the wording. That single question also separates the Mudra scheme, which lends smaller amounts to micro units, from this one, which lends larger amounts to a narrower set of borrowers.

• Launched on 5 April 2016 for greenfield enterprises in manufacturing, services or trading.
• Loans range from ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore, composite loans covering both term and working-capital needs.
• Each bank branch is expected to lend to at least one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe borrower and one woman borrower.
• The enterprise must be new — for a non-individual enterprise, at least 51 per cent of the holding must be with the eligible borrower.
• The scheme was extended to 2025, and the Stand-Up Mitra portal handles applications and hand-holding.

• Mixing Stand-Up India with Start-up India, which is a different policy aimed at innovation-driven firms.
• Attaching the 18-50 age band to the wrong scheme.

A scheme-to-objective match, or a statement item on loan size and eligible borrowers.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Stand-Up India scheme, bank loans are granted in the range of

  • (a)₹50,000 to ₹5 lakh
  • (b)₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore
  • (c)₹1 crore to ₹5 crore
  • (d)₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh

  Answer(b) ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore — for a greenfield enterprise set up by a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or woman entrepreneur.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana provides cover to bank account holders in the age group

  • (a)18 to 50 years
  • (b)18 to 70 years
  • (c)21 to 60 years
  • (d)25 to 65 years

  Answer(a) 18 to 50 years — it is the life-insurance scheme, distinct from the accident cover of Suraksha Bima Yojana.