The government of India has joined hands with Bengaluru-based food delivery platform Swiggy to onboard street food vendors on its ecommerce platform, giving them online access to several consumers.
To start with, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Swiggy will run a pilot programme by onboarding 250 vendors across five cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, and Varanasi.
This initiative is in line with Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) that helps and supports street vendors to promote their products.
The PM SVANidhi has been implemented since June 1, 2020, for providing affordable working capital loans to street vendors whose businesses have been affected by the pandemic. The scheme aims to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors.
The vendors will be helped with PAN and FSSAI registration, training on technology/partner app usage, menu digitisation, pricing, hygiene, and packaging best practices.
Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to ₹10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year. On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy at 7 per cent per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through direct benefit transfer on quarterly basis.
The scheme promotes digital transactions through cashback incentives up to an amount of ₹1,200 per annum.
