The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the restructuring and extension of the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme. The lending period, which was earlier valid till December 31, 2024, has now been extended to March 31, 2030. The total outlay for the restructured scheme is ₹7,332 crore.
The government said the revised scheme will cover 1.15 crore beneficiaries, including 50 lakh new street vendors. Implementation will be jointly handled by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Department of Financial Services.
Under the new provisions, the loan amount in the first and second tranches has been increased. The first tranche will now provide up to ₹15,000, instead of ₹10,000 earlier, and the second tranche has been raised to ₹25,000 from ₹20,000. The third tranche of ₹50,000 remains unchanged. Beneficiaries who repay the second loan will also become eligible for a UPI-linked RuPay Credit Card.
To promote digital transactions, vendors can avail cashback incentives of up to ₹1,600 on retail and wholesale payments. The scheme’s coverage is also being expanded beyond statutory towns to census towns and peri-urban areas in a phased manner.
The government said the restructured scheme will also focus on capacity building through training in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, digital skills, and marketing. Street food vendors will receive hygiene and food safety training in partnership with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The ‘SVANidhi se Samriddhi’ component is being strengthened to ensure convergence with other government schemes. Monthly Lok Kalyan Melas will be organised to link beneficiaries and their families with welfare programmes.
Launched on June 1, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, PM SVANidhi has so far disbursed over 96 lakh loans worth ₹13,797 crore to more than 68 lakh street vendors. Nearly 47 lakh digitally active beneficiaries have carried out 557 crore digital transactions worth ₹6.09 lakh crore, earning cashback incentives of ₹241 crore. Under ‘SVANidhi se Samriddhi’, 46 lakh beneficiaries across 3,564 Urban Local Bodies have been profiled, leading to over 1.38 crore scheme sanctions.
The scheme has won the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration (2023) and the Silver Award for Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering for Digital Transformation (2022).
According to the Cabinet decision, the extension of PM SVANidhi aims to ensure holistic development of street vendors by providing easy access to credit, promoting digital adoption, and enabling socio-economic upliftment of vendors and their families.