PM Modi marked the 10th anniversary of the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana by hosting beneficiaries at his residence, emphasizing the transformative impact the scheme has had on their lives.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday shared a light-hearted moment with a Mudra Yojana beneficiary, assuring that we won’t get into trouble with the Income Tax Department for revealing his earnings that have grown exponentially because of the scheme.
The occasion came while PM Modi was meeting a group of beneficiaries from across the country at his residence to celebrate the 10 years of the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).
In an X post, before the meeting was telecast, the Prime Minister said the beneficiaries shared with him many fascinating insights on how this scheme has transformed their lives.
“To mark #10YearsOfMUDRA, I had invited Mudra beneficiaries from all over India to my residence. They shared fascinating insights on how this scheme has transformed their lives,” he wrote in a post on X.
One of the highlights of the interaction was PM Modi’s banter with a man from Kerala who was sharing how loans under the scheme helped him grow his business and earnings. During the conversation, PM Modi asked the man how much he had been earning in a month now to which the former took a brief pause to which PM Modi jokingly said, “daro mat Income tax wala nahi aayega” (do not wory. The Income Tax will not bother you).
The man then revealed he is earning around Rs 2.5 lakh a month.
Watch the video here:
The beneficiary is Gopi Kishan, an entrepreneur, who quit his job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to start a rooftop solar panel installation business back home. He shared how the MUDRA Yojana had played a pivotal role in his journey, stating that it had helped transform him into a successful entrepreneur. The Prime Minister acknowledged this remark with a nod of approval.
The Kerala native further mentioned that the Yojana had greatly contributed to his business’s growth and created numerous job opportunities. When the Prime Minister asked whether his mother was upset about his decision to return to India, the entrepreneur responded that everything worked out well in the end.
What is Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana?
Launched on April 8, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister’s Mudra Yojana (PMMY) was designed to offer collateral-free institutional credit of up to Rs 20 lakh through Member Lending Institutions (MLIs).
Since its inception, over 52.37 crore loans totaling Rs 33.65 lakh crore have been sanctioned, with approximately 20% of these loans benefiting new entrepreneurs, as highlighted by Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju during a media briefing on Monday.
The PMMY addresses the financial needs of a wide range of stakeholders, including emerging entrepreneurs and hardworking farmers, through various initiatives under the scheme.
Under the PMMY, member lending institutions—such as scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), small finance banks (SFBs), non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and microfinance institutions (MFIs)—offer collateral-free loans of up to Rs 10 lakh.
These loans are intended for income-generating activities in the manufacturing, trading, services sectors, and agriculture-related activities.
The scheme was launched with the goal of promoting small businesses, with banks instructed to provide collateral-free loans in three categories: Shishu (up to Rs 50,000), Kishore (Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh), and Tarun (Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh).