PM SVANidhi

Street vendors have no collateral to offer a bank. COVID-19 stopped their income overnight anyway. PM SVANidhi answered with a working-capital loan that needed no collateral at all, and it has since grown far past its emergency origins.

MCQ Questions

IndSoc0049

PM SVANidhi: From Rescue Loan to Permanent Ladder

A COVID-era loan for street vendors that kept growing tiers, features, and reach long after the emergency passed.

Jun 2020

PM SVANidhi launches

A collateral-free ₹10,000 loan, to help street vendors restart after COVID-19.

Apr 2021

Second loan tier added

Vendors who repaid on time could now access a ₹20,000 second loan.

Jun 2022

Third loan tier added

A ₹50,000 third loan became available, for vendors who kept repaying.

Aug 2025

Scheme is restructured

The Union Cabinet approves a restructured PM SVANidhi, with new features and reach.

The pattern: SVANidhi never stopped at emergency relief. Each new loan tier, and the 2025 restructuring, kept building it into permanent street-vendor infrastructure, not a one-time rescue package.

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Must Know

• PM SVANidhi (Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi) was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on 1 June 2020.
• It gives collateral-free working capital loans to street vendors, to help them restart businesses hit by COVID-19.
• The first loan is up to ₹10,000, with a 1-year tenure.
• On timely repayment, vendors can access a second loan of up to ₹20,000, introduced 9 April 2021. A third loan of up to ₹50,000 followed, introduced 1 June 2022.
• The scheme gives a 7% per annum interest subsidy, for vendors who repay regularly.
• It also rewards digital transactions with cashback. Vendors get ₹1 per digital transaction, capped at ₹100 a month, or ₹1,200 a year.

Good to Know

• The Union Cabinet approved a restructured PM SVANidhi scheme on 27 August 2025, adding new features and extending its reach.
• As of 12 July 2026, nearly 76.95 lakh street vendors had availed 1.15 crore loans under the scheme. These loans were worth over ₹18,475 crore, since the scheme’s 2020 launch.
• States and Urban Local Bodies identify eligible vendors, under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
• PM SVANidhi is demand-driven. Eligible vendors, including migrant and seasonal ones, apply directly through the PM SVANidhi portal or mobile app.
• See IndSoc0046 — Lakhpati Didi and SHE-LEAPS for another livelihood-support scheme built around tracked, incremental progress.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. PM SVANidhi was launched on 1 June 2020 to help which group recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?

Small and medium enterprises

Street vendors

Migrant construction workers

Auto-rickshaw drivers

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Great to Know

• PM SVANidhi never stayed a one-time COVID rescue package. It gained new loan tiers in 2021 and 2022, then a full restructuring in 2025, treating street-vendor credit as permanent infrastructure, not just emergency relief.
• The ₹1,200-a-year cashback cap looks small on its own. But it nudges millions of India’s smallest, most cash-reliant borrowers toward a real credit history and a digital footprint many never had before.
• Because the scheme is demand-driven, take-up depends heavily on local outreach. That’s why the government leans on radio jingles, local-language material, and door-to-door Melas, not just the loan offer itself.

Current Affairs

• 11 July 2026: Lakhanpur, in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua district, was selected among the first towns approved under PM SVANidhi’s new “Street Food Hub” Plan. MoHUA plans up to 50 Street Food Hubs nationally, giving preference to towns with high tourism potential. Lakhanpur’s hub spans 1,754.25 square metres, across two clusters. It will promote Dogra cuisine, and sits on the route to Vaishno Devi, serving Amarnath Yatra pilgrim traffic. Each approved hub gets ₹4 crore in funding, released in three instalments. (Source: PIB)
• 11 July 2026: The Ministry had received 126 Street Food Hub proposals from 32 States and Union Territories, covering 106 Urban Local Bodies and 7 Census Towns. Cities that have already notified their own Street Vending Plan get an extra ₹25 lakh incentive. (Source: PIB)