PM SVANidhi — Digital Payment Onboarding for Street Vendors

PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), launched by India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in June 2020, gives street vendors small collateral-free working-capital loans (starting around ₹10,000). Lending institutions are required to issue every borrower a durable QR code and UPI ID at the time of disbursement and to train them in basic digital transactions, turning a credit programme into a mass digital-payment onboarding effort for a historically undocumented informal-economy population.

The government layered promotional campaigns (such as 'Main Bhi Digital 3.0', September–November 2021) and ongoing cashback incentives — vendors earn monthly cashback for transacting via UPI, QR codes or digital wallets — on top of the loan mechanism to sustain usage rather than one-off sign-up.

By the scheme's sixth anniversary in mid-2026, more than 1.12 crore (11.2 million) loans had been disbursed worth over ₹17,800 crore, and more than 5.5 million vendors had been digitally onboarded, executing over 841 crore (8.41 billion) digital transactions worth an estimated ₹8.96 lakh crore (₹8.96 trillion). Vendors have also received close to ₹800 crore in digital cashback and interest subsidies. The scheme has been restructured and extended through March 2030.

An independent, peer-reviewed study of women street vendors in Delhi (MDPI Economies, 2026) corroborates the direction of these effects — digital-payment income share, livelihood satisfaction and customer satisfaction all improved after adoption — while honestly documenting the limits: cash still accounted for the majority (69%) of income in its sample, and adoption was constrained by limited smartphone access, inconsistent connectivity, digital illiteracy and fear of cyber fraud, particularly among less-educated women vendors.

Read the full analysis: https://pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in/