According to a recent study, women comprise a mere 14% of total entrepreneurs in India. To encourage and bolster ambitious women to start their own business several initiatives are being launched by the government of India. One such initiative is the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana Scheme for women.
Mudra Loans comes with the sole aim of fostering a culture of entrepreneurship within India which was issued under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). Banks and other financial institutions can offer Mudra loans to women who have the vision to initiate their own businesses in India. PMMY loans can be availed of by anyone looking to launch, expand, support, or modernize their own SME - interestingly, in the four years since its launch, 70% of the loan accounts have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs.
According to the official government report for 2018-2019, the largest number of takers for PMMY loans are presently SMEs at the launch phase - in other words, Shishu loans are the most popular loan hogging 86% of the total number of loans issued. Kishore loans clocked 11%, while Tarun loans stood at 3%. The Mudra Yojana website states that 59,870,318 PMMY loans totaling Rs 321,722.79 crore were sanctioned in 2019. Over 1.33 crore new loan accounts were sanctioned in 2018-2019, and PMMY loans grew in popularity
The Mahila loan yojana is a scheme designed uniquely for budding women entrepreneurs where women from all walks of life can avail of such loans. However, they would need to meet a certain set of eligibility criteria in order to get so.
Female entrepreneurs heading production and manufacturing businesses are eligible to avail PMMY loan. Examples include artisans, weavers, craftsmen, and so on.
Women entrepreneurs aiming to start, expand or modernize businesses offering services such as tailoring, phone repairing, photocopying, auto-repairing, and servicing centers, beauty parlor services and more can avail of such loans.
Under the Mudra Yojana, The Mahila Udhyami Yojana is a scheme designed uniquely aspiring female entrepreneurs avail loan funds of up to Rs.10 lakh to start a small or micro-enterprise, also making sure the business is a non-corporate or a non-farm business.
Loans available under the PMMY scheme are divided into three different categories
The following are the key features of the Mudra Yojana scheme for women:
The loan tenor of MUDRA Yojana for women may extend up to 7 years.
The MUDRA Yojana scheme has already benefited numerous businesses with loans worth Rs.35,002.15 crore sanctioned in FY 2019 and Rs.3,21,722.79 crore sanctioned in FY 2018. The scheme can help women entrepreneurs to grow, expand their businesses, manage cash flow and meet their working capital requirements with ease.
The PMMY is a scheme launched on April 8, 2015, for providing loans up to Rs 10 lakh to non-corporate, non-farm small/micro-enterprises. The ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ or ‘Self-reliant India Scheme’, is a recent initiative taken by the government under MUDRA Shishu Category. The scheme provides relief of Rs. 1500 crore to the Shishu loan borrowers. Offering Rs. 1500 crore Interest subsidy for MUDRA Shishu Loan category. The Government of India shall provide Interest discount of 2% for fast recipients for a period of 12 months
MUDRA Card is a debit card issued against the MUDRA loan account for the working capital portion of the loan. The borrower can use the MUDRA card in multiple withdrawal and credit facilities. The MUDRA card can also act as a debit card that owners can swipe at Points of Sale (PoS) with merchants or use to withdraw cash from an ATM.