NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka are top three states to get the maximum number of loans sanctioned under the central government’s Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Limited (MUDRA) scheme.

Across India general category entrepreneurs have received 45% of Mudra loans followed by Other Backward Castes ( OBC ) 32%, Schedule Castes (SC) 18% and Scheduled Tribes (ST) just 5% loans.

A survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2007 put the OBC population in the country at 40.94%, the SC population at 19.59%, ST population at8.63% and the rest at 30.80%.

The government had launched Mudra through a statutory enactment for catering to the needs of the Non–Corporate Small Business Sector (NCSB) segment or the informal sector for bringing them into the mainstream.

As per the ministry of finance data presented to the Lok Sabha about 12 cr beneficiaries have received Mudra loans. Under the Mudra scheme, banks and financial institutions have given Rs 6 lakh crore to beneficiaries.

Of the total number of loans sanctioned 35% of loans have gone to entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka.

In Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal loans disbursed to general category accounts for more than 60 % while in Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu general category loan receivers are more than 50% of total sanctioned loans.

Bihar is the only state where more than 55% loan beneficiaries are from OBC category. In Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh OBCs have outnumbered general category loan receivers. Mizoram and Meghalaya are the only two states where ST population has got more loans than any other category.

