More than 34.42 crore beneficiaries have received Rs 18.60 lakh crore loan under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) since its launch seven years ago, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

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The PMMY was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8, 2015, for providing loans up to Rs 10 lakh to the non-corporate and non-farm small/micro-enterprises.

"It is noteworthy that more than 34.42 crore loan accounts amounting to Rs 18.60 lakh crore have been opened under the Scheme for the creation of income-generating activities," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman said on the seventh anniversary of the scheme.

The scheme has helped in creating an enabling environment, particularly for small businesses and generate large-scale employment opportunities at the grassroots level, she said.

More than 68 per cent of the loan accounts have been sanctioned to women and 22 per cent of the loans have been given to new entrepreneurs who had not availed any loan since the inception of the scheme, the minister added.

While greeting and congratulating all the Mudra beneficiaries and urging other prospective borrowers to come forward and take part in the nation-building process, Sitharaman said, "With 51 per cent of total loans sanctioned so far going to the SC/ST/ OBC category, the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana stands for social justice in action and embodies the true spirit of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' as envisioned by the Prime Minister".

On the occasion, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said the driving force behind launching the PMMY has been to provide institutional credit to micro, small and medium enterprises in a hassle-free/seamless manner.

The other noteworthy focus of the PMMY has been able to extend credit to the growing number of beneficiaries from the 'aspirational districts' identified by Niti Aayog, thus enabling the flow of credit to these credit-starved districts, he said.

Implementation of the Financial Inclusion (FI) programme in the country is based on three pillars, namely Banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured and Funding the Unfunded.

Under this ongoing programme, these three objectives are being achieved through leveraging technology and adopting a multi-stakeholder collaborative approach while serving the unserved and underserved as well.

One of the three pillars of FI - Funding the Unfunded, is reflected in the FI ecosystem through the PMMY, which is being implemented to provide access to credit for small entrepreneurs, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The PMMY focuses on the financial needs of all stakeholders, ranging from budding entrepreneurs to hard-working farmers, through various initiatives of the scheme, it added.

Under the PMMY collateral-free loans of up to Rs 10 Lakh are extended by member lending institutions (MLIs) viz scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), small finance banks (SFBs), non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), microfinance institutions (MFIs) etc.

The loans are given for income-generating activities in the manufacturing, trading and services sectors and activities allied to agriculture.

The scheme was launched to encourage small businesses, and banks were asked to provide collateral-free loans up to Rs 10 lakh under three categories -- Shishu (up to Rs 50,000), Kishore (between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh) and Tarun ( Rs 10 lakh).