Stand-Up India: three percentages that only make sense together

Stand-Up India is the government scheme people most often quote a number from without having read the sentence around it. The number is usually 85%, and it is usually wrong in the way it is being used.

The scheme was a bank loan, run through the Department of Financial Services, for SC and ST entrepreneurs and for women entrepreneurs starting their first business. It closed to new loans on 31 March 2025. Its eligibility and process sit in our grants and schemes register. This piece is about the two things a register cannot argue: what greenfield rules out, and how the percentages interact.

01Who is eligible to borrow?

• An sc, st or woman entrepreneur, over 18. The scheme is written for those borrowers and nobody else.
• For a company, LLP or firm, at least 51% of the shareholding and the controlling stake in those hands. Both, not either.
• Setting up a first-time enterprise in manufacturing, services, agri-allied activities or trading.
• Not in default to any bank or financial institution.

The 51% clause deserves a second look if you have already raised. It asks for shareholding and control together. A cap table that has drifted below the line breaks it, and so does a shareholders' agreement that moved control elsewhere while the headline percentage still looks fine.

One piece of useful context that is not a test on you. Every Scheduled Commercial Bank branch is expected to finance at least one SC or ST borrower and at least one woman borrower. That is a mandate on the branch. It does not qualify you, and it is worth knowing when you walk in.

03How do the three percentages fit together?

The 85, the 15 and the 10 are not one rule seen from three angles. They are three rules, and they bind different people.

Here is what each of them actually says.

Now read them together. The loan and the margin add up to the whole project cost, so the margin is the part of the cost the loan does not reach. Your own money has to be at least 10 percentage points of that 15. What is left, at most 5 percentage points, is the only room another eligible scheme can fill.

Take a project costing INR 50 lakh. The bank can lend up to INR 42.5 lakh, which leaves a margin of INR 7.5 lakh. At least INR 5 lakh of that has to be your own money. No more than INR 2.5 lakh can come from convergence with another eligible scheme.

There is one more line, and it matters if you have more than the minimum. The 85% stipulation does not apply where your contribution plus convergence support already exceeds 15% of project cost. In other words the 85% is a ceiling on the bank's exposure, not a promise that you will be lent it.

The percentages changed once, which is why older summaries conflict. After the 2021-22 Budget the margin requirement was cut from up to 25% to up to 15%, which took the loan's expected coverage from 75% to 85%.

05Where do you apply, and who decides?

There were three routes, and they ended in the same place: online through the Stand-Up India portal, directly at any Scheduled Commercial Bank branch, or through your Lead District Manager.

The decision is the branch's. It appraises your project or business plan, then checks three things: the SC, ST or woman status, the greenfield nature of the venture, and your default record. There was no call to wait for and no cohort to be selected into. Since 31 March 2025 there has been no route in at all.

The portal also carried handholding support, and it was more substantial than these things usually are. Training, help preparing the project report, financial literacy support and mentoring, from before the loan through to after it. If the project report is the part you are dreading, use it.

A weak project report is the commonest way a good business fails a bank appraisal, and the pattern generalises across every scheme in the register. Why government applications fail covers the rest of that ground.

07Frequently asked questions

Can we still apply?

Not under Stand-Up India, which closed on 31 March 2025. While it ran it was a lender route rather than a call, so there was no window. Wait for the successor's guidelines before planning around it.

Can two co-founders apply together?

For a company or firm the test is on the shareholding, not on headcount. At least 51% of the shares and the controlling stake have to sit with SC, ST or women promoters. A mixed founding team can qualify if that line holds.

Do we need collateral?

Not necessarily. The bank decides security, and it may rely on the credit guarantee fund built for these loans instead of collateral. Cover is at the bank's discretion, so ask at the first meeting rather than the last.

Does the 85% mean the bank has to lend us 85%?

No. It is a ceiling on what the loan may cover, and the bank lends what it appraises. If your own contribution plus convergence support is already above 15% of project cost, the 85% stipulation does not bind at all.

General guidance, current as at 5 October 2026. Stand-Up India closed on 31 March 2025 and its successor has not yet been notified, so confirm the current scheme and terms with your bank before you act on anything here. If you want the project report and the eligibility work done with you, our grants and schemes work is CS Manavi Arora's desk.