Rameswaram (TN), 19 Nov” 5 min read Last Updated : Nov 19 2023 | 7:10 PM IST
Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said women entrepreneurs are accorded first priority under the Centre’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana scheme which offers financial assistance to beneficiaries.
Distributing sanction letters to beneficiaries under the PM SVANidhi Se Samriddhi programme which offers loans to street vendors, here, she said officials of the municipalities should identify the uncovered street vendors and help them avail benefits of this scheme.
SVANidhi Se Samriddhi is an additional component of the PMSVANidhi scheme to facilitate access to eight Central government schemes to eligible PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their family members for their holistic development and socio-economic upliftment.
Recalling the launch of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile Trinity, Sitharaman said that through JAM Trinity, an AADHAR card was provided to a beneficiary, after which he or she can open a bank account and, directly, the financial aid from the Centre has been transferred to the accounts of a beneficiary, thereby avoiding ‘middlemen’.
The Union Minister referred to former PM and late Rajiv Gandhi’s comment that if the Centre gives away Rs 100 to a beneficiary, he receives only Rs 15 and the remaining Rs 85 goes to middlemen and others’.
“He (Rajiv Gandhi) himself has mentioned this and after assuming office in 2014, in order to ensure that a beneficiary directly receives the financial assistance given to him by the Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised us to use technology so that the beneficiary is able to know whatever amount he has received directly, thereby middlemen can be avoided,” she said.
“The opening of bank accounts to serve the beneficiary was conducted like a mass movement to attain full coverage of the scheme across the country,” she added.
On the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana scheme, Sitharaman said it was introduced to provide loans through banks particularly to empower women entrepreneurs.
“One important aspect of the scheme is that women who are running small businesses or interested in starting a business, can approach the bank and start their venture by receiving the loans from PM Mudra Yojana scheme. Through this scheme, if 100 people were beneficiaries, 60 of them would comprise women. Women were accorded top priority under the PM Mudra scheme,” she pointed out. (PTI)