PM Svanidhi Scheme: MoHUA unites with Swiggy taking Street Food Vendors online

On October 5, 2020, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs signed Memorandum of Understanding with Swiggy to take street food vendors online. This was achieved under PM Svanidhi Scheme.

Highlights

The programme was launched in five cities such as Chennai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Delhi and Varanasi. Under the programme around 250 vendors were taken on-board across the five cities on first day. In future, more than 50 lakh street vendors will be benefited under the scheme.

Significance

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where physical distancing is the key, this step will change the life of the Street Vendors.

What is the plan?

To begin with, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will run the programme taking 250 vendors on board across five cities. These vendors will be helped with FSSAI registration, PAN registration, partner app usage, training on technology, hygiene packing, menu digitization, etc. Upon success, the programme is to be expanded to other parts of the country.

Also, the ministry launched updated and modified version of PM SVANidhi Dashboard.

PM SVANidhi Yojana

The scheme was launched to bring microcredit facility to street vendors at door steps. Under the scheme, the street vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000. If the vendor repays the instalment on time, the loan credit amount can be extended to Rs 20,000. The loan is provided without collateral. The scheme was announced as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Under the scheme, the street vendors from rural and peri-urban areas are included as beneficiaries of the urban livelihood. This is the first time in Indian history such an inclusion is being made.

The validity of the scheme is till March 2022.

As of October 4, 2020, around 20 lakh loan applications were received. Of this 7.5 lakh have been sanctioned so far and 2.4 lakhs were rejected.

Significance

The scheme will help to integrate vendors into formal financial system. Also, the loans under the scheme will help to kick start activities of vendors who were left without income due to the impact of lock down and COVID-19.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2020