The Union Cabinet has approved five-year extensions of two credit schemes aimed at women, SC and ST entrepreneurs and micro enterprises, with fresh guarantee corpus for both.

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• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a five-year continuation of the Stand-Up India Scheme until 31 March 2031 on 11 November 2026.
• The extension comes with a credit guarantee corpus of ₹4,111 crore to strengthen the scheme's guarantee mechanism and encourage lenders to extend credit.
• The scheme targets at least 2.5 lakh additional entrepreneurs from among women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• Stand-Up India was launched in April 2016 and has so far facilitated loans to more than 2.75 lakh such entrepreneurs.
• Loans under the scheme range from ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore.
• The scheme is limited to greenfield enterprises, and in non-individual firms an eligible woman or SC/ST entrepreneur must hold at least 51% ownership and a controlling stake.
• The Cabinet also approved a five-year continuation of the Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU) up to 31 March 2031.
• CGFMU gives lending institutions credit guarantee cover against default risk through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company, for loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana.
• The revised CGFMU has a corpus of ₹5,000 crore to support loans worth ₹12.6 lakh crore, and it covers loans of up to ₹20 lakh to eligible micro enterprises.
• Prime Minister Modi said continuing CGFMU is a major boost for aspiring entrepreneurs, especially youth, and that Stand-Up India will give fresh impetus to enterprise creation.

Tags: StandUpIndia, CGFMU, MudraYojana