Stand-Up India 2026: Old Scheme Closed, Rs 2 Cr Successor

What Stand-Up India is in 2026

Stand-Up India is a two-part story in 2026. The original scheme, launched on 5 April 2016 to give SC, ST, and women first-time entrepreneurs bank loans between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore, closed for fresh applications on 31 March 2025 after nine years of operation. In its place, Union Budget 2025-26 announced a successor scheme with a doubled ceiling of Rs. 2 crore per loan, targeting 5 lakh SC, ST, and women first-time entrepreneurs over FY 2025-26 to FY 2029-30. Operational guidelines from the Department of Financial Services are still pending as of July 2026.

If you're a first-time SC, ST, or woman entrepreneur planning to apply, you cannot open a new Stand-Up India loan account today. The Standupmitra portal only accepts follow-up queries from existing borrowers who were sanctioned before 31 March 2025. Every top-ranking search result still describes the old scheme as if you can walk into a bank tomorrow and apply. That's outdated.

This page separates the two clearly, so you know what applies to which scheme.

The old Stand-Up India scheme (2016 to 2025)

The old scheme was notified by the Ministry of Finance on 6 January 2016 and formally launched by Prime Minister Modi on 5 April 2016 at Sector-62, Noida. It ran through the Department of Financial Services (DFS) with SIDBI as the nodal agency and the Standupmitra.in portal as the borrower-bank matching layer.

Key terms of the old scheme:

• Loan range: Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 1 crore per borrower
• Loan type: composite loan (75% term loan plus 25% working capital)
• Repayment: up to 7 years with a moratorium up to 18 months
• Interest rate: bank MCLR plus 3% plus tenor premium (typically 11% to 13% based on borrower profile)
• Credit guarantee: Credit Guarantee Fund for Stand-Up India (CGSSI) via NCGTC covered loans up to Rs. 1 crore with no third-party collateral
• Eligibility: SC, ST, or woman aged 18 and above, setting up a first-ever greenfield enterprise in manufacturing, services, trading, or agri-allied sectors
• One borrower per branch per category (one SC, one ST, one woman per branch was the design intent)

Cumulative performance till 28 February 2025:

• Rs. 60,504 crore sanctioned across roughly 2.35 lakh accounts, per Department of Financial Services parliamentary reply
• Rs. 34,450 crore disbursed, giving a sanction-to-disbursement gap of roughly 43%
• Women borrowers accounted for approximately 80% of Stand-Up India loans across the scheme's life, per SIDBI data cited by PIB in October 2024
• FY 2023-24 saw 39,643 fresh sanctions with disbursements of 17,374 loans, a 12% decline year-on-year that signalled the scheme's slowing traction

The government did not renew Stand-Up India in Union Budget 2025-26. FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced the successor scheme in the same speech, so there was no gap in policy signalling, but the operational scheme window closed on 31 March 2025.

The new Stand-Up India scheme (2025 to 2030)

FM Sitharaman's Budget 2025-26 announcement is short. Here is what she actually said in the 1 February 2025 speech under the entrepreneurship section: "For 5 lakh women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe first-time entrepreneurs, a new scheme will be launched. This will provide term loans up to Rs. 2 crore during the next 5 years."

Three concrete parameters follow from that:

1. Target beneficiary count: 5 lakh SC, ST, and women first-time entrepreneurs
2. Term loan ceiling: Rs. 2 crore per loan (double the old Rs. 1 crore ceiling)
3. Scheme window: 5 years, so FY 2025-26 to FY 2029-30

The FM added that the new scheme will include online capacity building and entrepreneurship workshops, and that lessons from the old scheme's rollout will inform the redesign. IBEF reported on 8 February 2025 that the Ministry of MSME and DFS were jointly formalising the operational framework.

What's still pending as of July 2026:

• Notified operational guidelines (interest rate structure, moratorium period, repayment tenor, security requirements)
• Successor portal (Standupmitra.in currently reflects the closed scheme)
• Confirmation of whether CGSSI-style credit guarantee will continue at the higher Rs. 2 crore ceiling
• List of participating scheduled commercial banks
• Bank-branch allocation targets

The Department of Financial Services indicated in a February 2025 briefing that the operational scheme would launch in the second half of FY 2025-26 (October 2025 to March 2026). That timeline has slipped. Watch financialservices.gov.in and pib.gov.in for the notification.

Old scheme vs new scheme at a glance

The comparison table below is the fastest way to see what actually changed. It's the one thing missing from every competitor page currently ranking for this query.

Who is eligible under the new scheme

The Budget speech uses the phrase "first-time entrepreneurs" which restricts the pool more tightly than the old scheme. Read literally, if you've previously run a proprietorship, partnership, LLP, or private limited company (whether registered or not), you don't qualify as first-time.

Best-guess eligibility profile based on the Budget language plus MSME sector conventions:

• Age 18 or above on the date of application
• Belong to SC, ST, or be a woman
• Never previously owned or promoted a formally registered enterprise
• Setting up a greenfield enterprise (not acquiring an existing business)
• Sector: manufacturing, services, agri-allied, or trading (old scheme excluded pure trading in some interpretations; new scheme language doesn't clarify)

If you're waiting for the launch, the practical step is to get your Udyam Registration Number reserved for a greenfield enterprise, and prepare a bankable business plan with three-year projections and a break-even analysis. Loan officers will ask for both on day one.

What existing Stand-Up India borrowers should know

If you were sanctioned before 31 March 2025, three things carry forward unchanged:

1. Your repayment schedule follows the original sanction terms. The scheme's closure does not accelerate repayment.
2. CGSSI credit guarantee cover continues to protect the lending bank for the guaranteed portion of your loan, subject to the scheme guidelines under which the loan was sanctioned.
3. You can approach your sanctioning bank branch for standard refinance or restructuring under RBI's Master Direction on stressed asset resolution if you need workout support. Standupmitra handholding continues for pre-31 March 2025 borrowers.

If you had a partial disbursal (Rs. 60,504 crore sanctioned vs Rs. 34,450 crore disbursed says roughly Rs. 26,000 crore is stuck in the sanction-to-disbursement gap across all borrowers), talk to your branch manager. Sanctions that remain undrawn after the borrower's tranche milestones can be recalled at bank discretion.

Preparation checklist while the new scheme is pending

Since operational guidelines are pending as of July 2026, use this window to become the borrower banks want to say yes to on day one of the new scheme.

Register with Udyam. Go to udyamregistration.gov.in and get your URN reserved for a proposed enterprise. Even a proposal-stage Udyam registration signals seriousness to a loan officer.

Prepare a two-page business plan. Include: proposed enterprise activity with 4-digit NIC code, promoter background, capital requirement break-up (land, plant and machinery, working capital), month-wise cash flow for the first three years, and break-even month. Two pages, not thirty.

Open a current account. Banks prefer to lend to their existing customers. If you don't already bank with one of the top ten scheduled commercial banks, open a current account with one now.

Complete DIC-EDI training. District Industries Centres offer 12-day Entrepreneurship Development Institute training for free. Certificate from an EDI institute strengthens the application.

Sort your KYC. PAN, Aadhaar, category certificate (SC/ST), address proof, and educational qualifications. Keep them in a single folder as scanned PDFs plus originals.

Reserve your trademark and domain. Rs. 4,500 for a trademark filing and Rs. 800 for a domain buys you brand protection. Loan officers view it as commitment signal.

What happens to the Standupmitra portal

Standupmitra.in still runs. It's now positioned as the servicing portal for pre-31 March 2025 borrowers. You can log in to view sanction status, download the sanction letter, and access the handholding module. Fresh applications get an error screen that says "Fresh applications are closed. Please wait for the new scheme launch."

For updates on the new portal, the Department of Financial Services has said it will notify the address on financialservices.gov.in and via PIB press release once operational guidelines are finalised.

Alternatives if you can't wait for the new scheme

If your business plan can't wait for the new Stand-Up India guidelines, four alternatives are open for fresh applications right now.

PM Mudra Loan. The Tarun Plus tier (added October 2024) offers Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh for repeat borrowers who cleared a Tarun-tier loan (Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh). Interest rate is broadly 8% to 12% depending on the bank. No specific SC, ST, or women reservation, but women account for 59.81% of active Mudra accounts as of March 2025 per Department of Financial Services data. If you're a first-time borrower, start at the Shishu tier (up to Rs. 50,000) and build history for two years.

PMEGP (Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme). KVIC-implemented scheme with margin money subsidy of 15% to 35% on project cost. Loan ceiling is Rs. 50 lakh for manufacturing and Rs. 20 lakh for services. General-category rural applicants get 25% margin money, SC/ST/women/OBC rural applicants get 35%. Application via kviconline.gov.in. This is the closest active substitute for someone waiting on the new Stand-Up India.

SIDBI Prayaas. Micro-loan window for micro-entrepreneurs missing formal bank documentation. Loan size Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh, no collateral, run through NBFC partners. Application on sidbi.in. Prayaas is for first-time entrepreneurs who don't yet have GST registration or two years of financial statements.

MSME Credit Guarantee via CGTMSE. Not a scheme per se, it's a credit-guarantee wrapper. If your bank hesitates to lend without collateral, ask them to structure the loan under CGTMSE cover. Cover is available on term and working capital loans up to Rs. 5 crore, with guarantee cover of 75% to 85% of the sanctioned amount. Guarantee fee ranges 0.37% to 1.35% annually depending on borrower category.

For SC and ST first-time entrepreneurs specifically, the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) and the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC) offer concessional loans (typically 4% to 6% interest) with subsidy top-ups from state SC/ST development corporations. Loan ceiling varies by state (typically Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 30 lakh). Contact your state SC/ST corporation branch.

Why the redesign matters

The old Stand-Up India scheme had two structural problems that the new redesign is trying to fix. First, the sanction-to-disbursement gap. Rs. 60,504 crore sanctioned but only Rs. 34,450 crore disbursed says roughly Rs. 26,000 crore was stuck in tranche-milestone bottlenecks. Borrowers couldn't meet tranche conditions fast enough, and banks preferred to hold the sanction rather than release it. Second, the "one borrower per branch per category" cap on branch-level intent slowed uptake in dense urban clusters and left rural branches under-utilised.

The new scheme's larger Rs. 2 crore ceiling suggests policy intent to move upmarket, from micro-enterprise borrowers to small-enterprise borrowers who can actually deploy the full loan. The 5 lakh beneficiary cap over 5 years works out to 1 lakh sanctions per year, roughly half the old scheme's peak year (2.4 lakh sanctions in FY 2019-20). Fewer borrowers, larger tickets, faster deployment: that's the redesign logic.

If the operational guidelines land in H2 FY 2026-27, first-round sanctions could open around October 2026. Track it monthly.

Stand-Up India vs Mudra vs PMEGP: which loan is right for you

If you're an SC, ST, or woman entrepreneur reading this because the old Stand-Up India is closed, the practical question is which alternative to use for a fresh business loan today. The table below compares Stand-Up India (old and successor) with the two closest active alternatives: PM Mudra Loan and PMEGP.

For most SC, ST, or women first-time entrepreneurs waiting for the successor scheme launch, PMEGP is the closest active substitute if you're setting up a manufacturing or service enterprise. Mudra Tarun or Tarun Plus works if you need Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh and are willing to accept a higher interest rate on a shorter tenure.

How to apply on standupmitra.in and prepare for the successor

Standupmitra.in remains operational for pre-31 March 2025 borrowers. If you're an existing borrower, this is where you check sanction status, download your sanction letter, request handholding, or file a service request. Log in with your registered mobile number and Aadhaar for OTP-based access.

For prospective borrowers who want to be ready the day the successor scheme's operational guidelines drop, four preparation steps will put you at the front of the queue.

Step 1: Get your CIBIL score above 720. The successor scheme is expected to keep CGSSI-style credit guarantee coverage, which means banks will screen on CIBIL just like the old scheme. If you're below 700, use the 3 to 6 month window to close any pending EMIs, dispute errors on your CIBIL report at cibil.com (free), and let your score rebuild.

Step 2: Register on Udyam and reserve your enterprise activity. Free registration at udyamregistration.gov.in. Enter your proposed activity's 4-digit NIC code, promoter details, and investment plan. A pre-launch Udyam registration signals seriousness to loan officers and can be updated when the enterprise actually starts.

Step 3: Complete DIC-EDI training. The District Industries Centre in your district runs a 12 to 15-day Entrepreneurship Development Institute programme for free. Attend it. The completion certificate is a standard document banks accept as evidence of business readiness, and it's a filter successful Stand-Up India applicants routinely cleared.

Step 4: Open a current account at a scheduled commercial bank. Public sector banks lend more comfortably to existing customers. Open a zero-balance current account at SBI, PNB, Bank of Baroda, or Union Bank of India now. Build 6 months of transaction history before the successor scheme launches so your bank has a KYC-verified profile ready.

Once the successor scheme's operational guidelines drop (expected H2 FY 2026-27 per DFS briefing), track pib.gov.in and financialservices.gov.in for the notification. We'll update this page within 24 hours of the announcement with the new application link, revised eligibility criteria, and the launch-day walkthrough.

State-level SC/ST corporation loans while you wait

The NSFDC (National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation) and NSTFDC (National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation) offer concessional entrepreneurship loans that most first-time SC and ST applicants overlook. Loans typically run at 4% to 6% interest, with state-level SC/ST development corporation branches handling the actual disbursement.

Loan ceilings vary by state. Maharashtra Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation offers up to Rs. 25 lakh at 6% for Term Loan and Rs. 10 lakh at 4% for Micro Credit Finance. Karnataka Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation offers up to Rs. 30 lakh at 4% interest for entrepreneurship activities. Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing Development Corporation runs up to Rs. 15 lakh at 4% for micro-enterprise.

To apply, visit your state's SC/ST corporation branch with Aadhaar, caste certificate, income certificate, business plan, and Udyam registration. Processing takes 30 to 60 working days. The concessional rate materially beats bank-market rates and offers a viable path while the Stand-Up India successor scheme's operational guidelines are still pending.

For women entrepreneurs specifically, the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) offers loans up to Rs. 5 lakh at 6% interest through NGO intermediaries, and various state Women Development Corporations offer schemes like Punjab Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme, Andhra Pradesh Women Empowerment loans, and Kerala Women Development Corporation's Swayamsidha loans. These layer neatly with the Stand-Up India successor scheme once it opens; you can hold both concurrently as long as total exposure stays within RBI's prudential norms.

Frequently asked questions