Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana

What is Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana?

Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana, often written locally as Shree Vajpayee Bankable Yojana or "Vajpayee Bankable", is Gujarat's flagship self-employment credit scheme. The scheme routes a bank loan to an unemployed person who wants to start a small unit and then pays part of that loan back to the bank as a government subsidy, so the borrower repays only the balance.

According to the Bankable Loan Portal maintained by the Finance Department, Government of Gujarat, the scheme's stated purpose is to provide self-employment to unemployed persons in the urban and rural areas of Gujarat, and it says explicitly that a disabled or blind person can also take the benefit. Scheme administration on the ground sits with the Commissioner of Cottage and Rural Industries and the District Industries Centre (DIC) in each district; the loan itself comes from a nationalised bank, a co-operative bank, a public sector bank or a private bank.

Key features

• Loan is arranged through a scheduled bank; the government adds a capital subsidy on top.
• Three sectors are covered: industry, service and trade (business).
• Maximum bank loan is Rs 25 lakh in each of the three sectors.
• There is no income ceiling, which makes the scheme broader than most Gujarat welfare schemes.
• Applications are filed online round the year at blp.gujarat.gov.in.

Gujarat revised the scheme's financial limits through government resolutions dated 9 May 2025 and 18 June 2025, both published on the Bankable Loan Portal. Older write-ups on aggregator sites still quote the earlier Rs 8 lakh loan ceiling and the earlier subsidy caps of Rs 1,25,000 for industry and Rs 60,000 to Rs 80,000 for trade. Use the figures on blp.gujarat.gov.in, which are the current ones.

How much money do you get under Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana?

Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana works in two layers. The loan and the subsidy.

Maximum bank loan

Rate of subsidy on the loan amount

Maximum subsidy

The subsidy ceiling is Rs 3,75,000 for the industry sector, Rs 3,75,000 for the service sector and Rs 3,75,000 for the trade sector. For a beneficiary who is blind, has a disability, or belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the maximum subsidy in any sector is Rs 5,00,000.

A worked example makes the arithmetic clear. A woman in a rural taluka who is sanctioned a Rs 10,00,000 loan for a food-processing unit falls in the 40% reserved-category rural slab, so her subsidy works out to Rs 4,00,000, but the general sector cap of Rs 3,75,000 applies unless she is also SC, ST, blind or disabled, in which case the Rs 5,00,000 ceiling applies. The subsidy is never paid ahead of the loan; it is adjusted against the loan account after disbursement and verification.

Who is eligible for Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana?

You can apply if:

• You are aged 18 to 65 years.
• You are a resident of Gujarat, in either an urban or a rural area.
• You have passed at least standard 4, or, in place of that qualification, you meet one of the alternatives below.
• Training route: you have completed at least three months of training at a private establishment or at least one month at a government-recognised institute, in the line of the proposed business.
• Experience route: you have at least one year of experience in the same activity, or you are a hereditary craftsperson.
• You are blind or have a disability: such applicants are expressly covered and get the higher subsidy slab.

There is no income criterion. A high household income does not disqualify you.

You cannot apply if:

• You are under 18 or over 65 on the date of application.
• You are not a resident of Gujarat.
• You have neither the standard 4 qualification nor the required training, experience or hereditary-craftsperson status.
• Your proposed activity appears in the scheme's negative list, notified by the government resolution dated 6 May 2016 and published on the Bankable Loan Portal.
• No bank is willing to sanction a loan for your project. Because the scheme is a subsidy on a bank loan, a rejected loan means no benefit, however eligible you otherwise are.

Applicants who have already taken a subsidised loan under this or a similar state self-employment scheme are also not eligible for a second benefit for the same activity; the District Industries Centre checks this at appraisal.

How to apply for Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana

1. Open the Bankable Loan Portal at https://blp.gujarat.gov.in/ and choose Citizen Register.
2. Complete mobile OTP authentication and create your login by entering your name, email, a password and the captcha code.
3. Log in and fill the applicant details, Aadhaar number, address and the other personal fields, entered exactly as they appear on your documents.
4. Fill the project and business details — the proposed activity, the sector (industry, service or trade), project cost, finance required, and your experience or training details. Save and continue to the next page.
5. Upload the supporting documents, Aadhaar, address proof, qualification or training certificate, caste or disability certificate if you are claiming the higher rate, bank passbook, proof of business premises and your photograph.
6. Submit the application and print it. Keep the printout; the District Industries Centre and the bank will ask for a signed copy with the originals.
7. Attend the bank appraisal. The DIC forwards the recommended case to your chosen bank branch, which appraises the project and sanctions the loan.
8. Set up the unit and claim the subsidy. After disbursement and field verification, the government subsidy is released to the bank and credited against your loan account.

Applications are accepted through the year, so there is no rush to a deadline, but district targets are limited, and cases are usually processed in the order they reach the bank.

How do I check my application status?

Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana applicants can track a case in three ways. First, the Bankable Loan Portal has an Application Status link on its home page that works with your application number. Second, log in as a citizen on the same portal to see the stage the file has reached. Third, contact your District Industries Centre, which holds the physical file between online submission and bank sanction, and the branch manager of the bank once the case has been forwarded.

Why do applications get rejected, and how do you fix it?

• Activity on the negative list. Read the 6 May 2016 negative-list resolution before choosing your activity; changing the activity after submission means a fresh application.
• No proof of training, experience or standard 4 pass. This is the most common documentary failure. Get a written certificate from the institute or employer rather than relying on a self-declaration.
• Weak or unrealistic project report. Banks reject cases where the project cost, expected turnover and repayment capacity do not add up. Ask the DIC for the standard project profile for your trade.
• No proof of business premises. A rent agreement or consent letter from the premises owner is usually enough; an unsupported address is not.
• Bank account not in the applicant's own name or not Aadhaar-seeded. The subsidy is routed electronically and fails on a name mismatch.
• Age outside 18-65. This cannot be cured; check the date of birth on your proof documents before applying.

What are the key dates and grievance route?

Shri Vajpayee Bankable Yojana has no annual closing date, the portal accepts applications all year. The operative government resolutions are dated 14 August 2015, 11 November 2016, 6 May 2016 (negative list), 9 May 2025 and 18 June 2025, and all of them are downloadable from the Bankable Loan Portal, which is the correct place to check whether limits have changed again.

For grievances, the first stop is the District Industries Centre of your district, the portal advises contacting your nearest DIC for more information. The Bankable Loan Portal also carries a Contact us page, a FAQ page and a scheme-specific FAQ document. If a bank branch refuses to process a DIC-recommended case, escalate in writing to the lead district manager of that bank and to the DIC general manager. The portal is managed by the Finance Department, Government of Gujarat, and hosted by the National Informatics Centre.