Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry Durga Shanker Mishra said, PM SVANidhi Mobile App aims to provide user-friendly digital interface for lending institutions and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the scheme.
The Minister said, the app is a step towards boosting the use of digital technology and will enable field functionaries to ensure maximum coverage of the scheme.
The Ministry said, that the launch of Mobile App will give impetus to the implementation strategy of the scheme besides promoting paper-less digital accessing of micro-credit facilities by the street vendors. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for use by the lending institutions and their field functionaries.
It said, since the commencement of lending process under PM SVANidhi on 2nd of July, more than one lakh 54 thousand street vendors have applied for working capital loan across States and Union Territories. Out of which, loan to over 48 thousand street vendors have already been sanctioned.
PM SVANidhi was launched by the government on 1st of June this year, for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 lockdown.
This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors who had been vending on or before 24th of March, 2020, in urban areas.
Under the scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to ten thousand rupees, which is repayable in monthly installments in the tenure of one year. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.
The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of 100 rupees per month.