Hardeep S. Puri Launches ‘SVANidhi Mahotsav’

New Delhi
The Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri has said that Street Vendors have been an essential part of India’s economic growth story with linkages with the formal economy and play a significant role in reducing cost of living, by providing goods and services at affordable rates. He was addressing the Media Persons after launching SVANidhi Mahotsav – a cultural festival for celebrating the success of PM SVANidhi Scheme and SVANidhi Mahotsav website. The Secretary, MoHUA, Shri Manoj Joshi, the Additional Secretary, MoHUA, Shri Sanjay Kumar and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Shri Puri said that MoHUA is organising ‘SVANidhi Mahotsav’ – a cultural festival for celebrating the success of PM SVANidhi Scheme and the beneficiary street vendors & their families, from 09 July to 31 July, 2022 in 75 cities across 33 States/UTs of the country. He further said that SVANidhi Mahotsav is a festival for celebrating and recognizing beneficiary street vendor’s growth story and their contribution towards Indian economy. The festival aims to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence with these nano-entrepreneurs, honoring their journey under PM SVANidhi scheme for demonstrating credit discipline, digital behavior and displaying their astute business acumen, he added.
Shri Puri said that the PM SVANidhi scheme was launched on June 1, 2020 to facilitate working capital loans to the street vendors to help them restart their businesses which were adversely impacted due to the lockdowns imposed during COVID-19 pandemic. He further said that this scheme is the first comprehensive effort for financial inclusion of the street vendors. Prior to this Scheme, street vendors were dependent on the informal credit channels paying high rates of interest, he added.