ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 10th August. Click Here for more information.
What is the News?
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has launched ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ Campaign.
About ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ Campaign
It is a special campaign for Digital Onboarding and Training of street vendors under the PM SVANidhi scheme.
The campaign has been launched across 223 cities in the country.
Under the campaign, BharatPe, Mswipe, PhonePe, Paytm, Aceware are participating to issue UPI IDs, QR codes and provide digital training to street vendors.
The street vendors will also be trained to accept and make digital payment transactions.
About PM SVANidhi Scheme
PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi(PM SVANidhi) was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2020 as a Central Sector Scheme.
Purpose: To facilitate affordable working capital loans of up to ₹10,000 with an interest subsidy @7% on regular repayment. The street vendors are not required to pay any collateral for the loan.
Implementing Agency: SIDBI has been appointed as the implementation agency for scheme administration.
Target: The scheme targets to cover 50 lakh street vendors, who had been vending on or before March 24, 2020.
Key Features of the scheme
The scheme provides Graded Guarantee Cover, to Lending Institutions, on a portfolio basis.
The street vendors also stand a chance to avail a loan of ₹20,000 and ₹50,000 in the second and third tranches respectively on timely repayment of the loan.
To encourage digital transactions a cashback up to ₹1,200 on digital transactions at ₹100 per month is provided to the street vendors under the scheme.
Source: This post is based on the article “‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ Special Campaign for Digital Onboarding, Training for street vendors” published in PIB on 9th September 2021.