Jan Samarth: A Digital Fulcrum for Credit Linked Scheme

The Initiative of Central Government:

The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi has launched Jan Samarth Portal on 6^th June 2022 which is focused to connect beneficiaries directly to lenders. Jan Samarth is the new digital initiative of the Central Government forAtmanirbhar Bharat. The portal is named as National Portal for Credit linked government schemes. As per the directive of from Government of India, Ministry of Finance Department of Financial Services, a national portal is created for Credit Linked Government Schemes named ‘Jan Samarth’ for streamlining the process of credit delivery through a digital platform that will provide a single interface for multiple stakeholders. This is first of its kind of digital platform directly connecting lenders with beneficiaries. It will improve the ease of living for the common man.

It is unique digital portal linking 13 credit linked government schemes on a single platform for the ease of access to all the beneficiaries and related stake holders. The core objective of Jan Samarth Portal is to promote inclusive growth and development of various sectors by guiding and providing them to the right type of government benefits through simple and easy digital process. The portal ensures end to end coverage of all the processes and activities of all the linked schemes. The portal uses cutting edge technologies and smart analytics to provide intuitive guidance to beneficiaries for checking subsidy eligibility and auto recommendation system offers best suitable schemes as per beneficiary’s requirements and credentials. Advanced technologies automate entire lending processes based on digital verifications making the entire process simple, speedy and hassle free. The portal ensures end to end coverage of all the linked schemes.

This portal will connect various stake holders of the financial eco system on a single platform to promote inclusive development and ease of doing business. The portal will connect the following:

• Applicants (Beneficiaries)
• Lenders and Financial Institutions
• Central/ State Government Ministries
• Nodal Agencies
• Facilitators

Digital Integrations:

Jan Samarth Portal, is having multiple integrations with the platform with UIDAI, CBDT, NSDL, LGD etc.  These integrations provide a backbone of digital access to authenticate data, reducing hassles of Member Lending Institutes (MLIs) as well as beneficiaries to choose from multiple options offered by various MLIs onboarded on the portal. It is type of portal where various ministries, nodal agencies and lenders came together to ensure fast, smooth and secure subsidy availing process for beneficiaries. At present more than 8 ministries, more than 10 nodal agencies and more 125 lenders are together present on the platform. The lenders include public and private sector banks along with the other lending institutions. It a one type of open architecture enabling state governments and other institutions to also onboard their schemes on this platform in the future.

Schemes covered on Jan Samarth:

The portal is launched with an initial inclusion of 13 schemes Credit Linked Schemes under the 4 different categories.

Category I: Education Loan (3 Schemes)

Category II: Agri Infrastructure Loan (3 Schemes)

Category III: Business Activity Loan (6 Schemes)

Category IV: Livelihood Loan (1 Schemes)

Under the category I for the education loans, the following 3 schemes are covered:

       a. Central Sector Interest Subsidy (CSIS): The scheme will applicable for the education loans for pursuing education within India. NAAC accredited institutions offering profession/ technical courses of professional/ technical program accredited by NBA or Institutions of national importance or Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) will be eligible. The subsidy will be claim only once, either for UG, PG, or integrated courses. Maximum amount of Rs.7.50 lakhs (irrespective of sanction amount) are eligible for subsidy if sanctioned without any collateral security orthird-party guarantee. The annual gross parental/ family income from all sources should not exceed Rs.4.50 lakhs. The interest subsidy is towards the interest charged in the loan account during the course and moratorium period only.

      b.Padho Pradesh Scheme: The main objective of the scheme is to award interest subsidy to meritorious students belonging to economically weaker sections of notified minority communities. The eligible students who secured admission to higher studies abroad viz. Masters, M. Phil and Ph.D levels only. The students belong to EWS of minority communities with an annual gross family not more than Rs. 6.00 lakh; for the loan amount up to Rs.20.00 lakh. The subsidy is available for interest charged on the loan amount disbursed during a financial year for a course and moratorium period only.

 c. Ambedkar Central Sector Scheme: The scheme is applicable for the students secured admission to higher studies abroad viz. Masters, M.Phil  and Ph.D levels only. The eligible students who belong to OBC & EBC an annual gross income not exceeding Rs.8.00 lakhs & Rs.2.50 lakhs respectively. The maximum eligible loan amount is up to Rs.20.00 lakh.The subsidy is available for interest charged on the loan amount disbursed during a financial year for a course and moratorium period only.

 

Under the category II for the Agri Infrastructure Loans, the following 3 schemes are covered:

     a. Agri Clinic and Agri Business Centers Scheme (ACABC): The eligible beneficiaries should have diploma/ degree/ post graduate education qualifications in Agriculture or Allied Subjects. The applicant has to complete the training by National Training Institutes before getting the benefits of the scheme. The maximum project cost to Rs.20.00 lakhs for Individual projects and Rs.1.00 Crore for group projects.

    b. Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure (AMI): The scheme is available for developing marketing infrastructure to handle marketable surpluses of agricultural and allied products. The scheme mainly covers primary processing of fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, oil seeds, coconuts, beverages, milk, meat, poultry and marine products.

    c. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF): The scheme is available to mobilize a medium/long term debt finance facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets. The scheme is helping in improving the marketing infrastructure to allow farmers to sell directly to a larger base of consumers and in turns increase value realization for the farmers.

Under the category III for the Business Activity Loans, the following 6 schemes are covered:

1. Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP): This scheme aims to generate the employment opportunities in rural as well as in urban areas by setting up of new self-employment business. The scheme is bringing widely dispersed rural and urban unemployed youth and giving them self-employment opportunities to their own place. It will help to increase the wage-earning capacity of artisans and contributing to increase in the growth rate of rural and urban employment.
2. Weaver Mudra Scheme (WMS): It aims to provide adequate and timely assistance from the Banking institutions to the weavers to meet their credit requirements. The scheme benefit is available for weavers, ancillary workers involved in weaving activities. Under the scheme the preference will be given to weavers identified under third census of handloom weavers as well as weavers identified by the state government.
3. Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojna (PMMY): This is most popularized scheme for small business entrepreneurs to create an inclusive, sustainable and value based entrepreneurial culture. The main objective of the scheme is to promote the entrepreneurship among the new generation aspiring youth. To meet the requirements of different sectors / business activities as well as business segments, three different products are offered named Shishu, Kishore and Tarun. These schemes help in the growth and development of micro enterprises.
4. Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor Aatmanirbhar Nidhi Scheme (PM SVANidhi): For uplifting the economic ladder, scheme is formalized for the street vendors for creating a new opportunity. In the initial year the eligibility is for Rs.10000.00 for one year tenure. If the vendors are regular in their repayments, they will be eligible for the next cycle of loan with the enhanced limits in second and third and tranches for Rs.20000 and Rs.50000.00 respectively.
5. Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS): Under the scheme identified manual scavengers, one from each family would be eligible for One Time Cash Assistance (OTCA) of Rs.40,000.00 or any such amount as OTCA as revised from time to time. If the applicant is eligible under the scheme, the manual scavenger and the dependents shall be provided, free of cost, skill training of their choice from trainings organized by the National SafaiKaramcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC). The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) is to provide mechanized cleaning contracts to them and also issue job guarantee to concern banks.
6. Stand Up India Scheme (StandUpIndia): The scheme is for provision of collateral free loans to the applicants. The objective of the scheme is to facilitate bank loans between 10 lakh and 1.00 crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower with focus on woman borrowers.

 

Under the category IV for the Livelihood Loans, the following only one scheme is covered:

1. Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM): It is flagship program of Govt. of India for promoting poverty reduction through building strong institutions of the poor, particularly women, and enabling these institutions to access a range of financial services and livelihoods. It is need base loan either in the form of Term Loan or Cash Credit. In case of further need, additional loan may be sanctioned even though the previous loan is outstanding, based on the repayment behavior and performance of the borrower.

The Portal and the process:

To provide the comfort to borrowers, the government in 2018 had launched a portal psbloansin59minutes.com for various kinds of the credit products; including MSME, home, auto and personal loans. The portal facilitates in–principle approval of loans for MSMEs and other borrowers in 59 minutes by various state- owned banks. The portal process loan applications without human intervention and without the physical document’s submission.

In the similar line the government launched the new portal called Jan Samarth portal, which will facilitate digital approval of the loan specified on the portal. Where the applicant can check the eligibility, apply online and get digital approval.

All the nationalised bank along with the other private lenders and financial institutions are the lending partner for the portal along with SIDBI and NABARD.

 

The following process to be followed for getting the digital approval of the loan:

1. Checking Eligibility: The applicant has to answer certain questions and to get it to match with the best suitable schemes available on the portal.
2. Apply Online: The applicant to provide the basic details & documents then the advanced technologies will capture/ auto-filled required details through smart analysis.
3. Get Digital Approval: After providing the basic details and documents, the applicant has to view the offers from more than 125 lenders and will get a digital approval from the selected bank.
4. Tracking the Application: The applicant can check the status of the application on real time basis at their own convenience.

Process for Registration on the portal:

 

The web address for the portal is: https://www.jansamarth.in/. The applicant is required to visit the official website of the portal. Then they have to click on the direct link of registration and the registration page will appear. The applicant has to click on Applicant login, then there are two options for registration i.e. e-mail Address login or mobile number login. After enter the details like email or mobile number and entering the captcha and agreed with the terms & conditions mentioned, the applicant to click on get OTP. After receiving the OTP, the same should be validated. After validation the applicant will get registered on the portal.

After the login, on the home page, scheme details are mentioned. The applicant has to explore the scheme and they can check the eligibility under a scheme of their own interest. For example; if someone want to avail education loan credit under Central Sector Interest Subsidy (CSIS), then they need to fill up the form where they have to provide the basic details like location, gross annual income of family, category, course, length of the course, type of course, course fee and the required loan amount. After filing the details, the eligibility will be decided that either they are eligible or not eligible under the scheme. Thereafter the eligible beneficiaries can apply the online to get the instant digital approval.

Benefits of Jan Samarath Portal:

The eligible applicant will get the following benefits through the portal:

• Beneficiaries need not to try hard for the loan.
• Beneficiaries need to go around the banks and other agents.
• Beneficiaries will get the loan while sitting in their house.
• No need to do more of the paper works.
• In the single portal the beneficiaries will get the bundle of loan schemes
• The loan will be given on the basis of need and eligibility of the beneficiaries
• The updates of all the activities will be available on the portal.

 

Conclusion:

The success of the portal is fully dependent on the lenders and the other key stake holders i.e. the ministries and nodal agencies. From the lenders side the more important task will to dispose the application within no time; so, the beneficiaries will receive the credit as per their need. The ministries have to release the subsidies to the beneficiaries accordingly. The most important thing is that the benefits should reach to the needy people for their growth and to meet out the financial needs. Once the portal will function properly and it will reach to the actual beneficiaries the government will direct to add some other credit -linked government schemes. Hope the portal will reach to needy people and country will enrich in the financial literacy.