One Family One Livelihood Scheme

What is the One Family One Livelihood Scheme?

One Family One Livelihood is a Government of Manipur objective, that every household in the state should have at least one earning livelihood, and the Chief Minister's Entrepreneurship Support Scheme (CMESS) is the instrument built to deliver it. The CMESS guidelines say so directly: the scheme was created as a supplement to the Manipur Startup Scheme "keeping in view the objective of One Family One Livelihood".

One Family One Livelihood was announced by the Manipur Cabinet on 13 April 2023, with a headline incentive of Rs 10 lakh per beneficiary household and a reported budget outlay of Rs 1,000 crore. The structure matters more than the headline: of that Rs 10 lakh project ceiling, 30 per cent; about Rs 3 lakh — is a one-time non-refundable state subsidy, and the rest is bank finance plus the applicant's own margin.

The nodal department is the Planning Department, Government of Manipur, which implements the scheme through its Startup Cell for project appraisal, financial viability assessment and credit linkage with banks and line departments. The scheme applies to all areas of Manipur, rural and urban.

Who is eligible for One Family One Livelihood?

You can apply if:

• You are a bonafide resident of Manipur.
• You are between 18 and 65 years of age on the date of filing the application.
• You are unemployed and are the owner of a registered business enterprise, holding the relevant licences, registration certificates, lease or rent agreement, or a Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum proving ownership and the identity and address of the business unit.
• Your enterprise is not more than two years old as on the date of application or notification.
• No other member of your household is claiming under the scheme.

You cannot apply if:

• You are a defaulter to any nationalised bank, financial institution or cooperative bank.
• You have already availed a subsidy under CMESS, the Startup Scheme, the Stand Up Scheme or PMEGP.
• Your unit is an existing old unit. The single exception recorded in the guidelines is homestays registered or approved under the State Department of Tourism.
• Another member of the same household has already taken the benefit. Only one member per family living in one household is eligible.

Preference is built into the scheme. The guidelines direct that unemployed youth from BPL families and rural area residents be given preference, with a target of not less than 30 per cent of total beneficiaries drawn from those groups.

How much money does One Family One Livelihood actually provide?

The financial structure is a three-way split on the approved project cost:

Maximum project cost covered is Rs 10 lakh, which puts the maximum subsidy at roughly Rs 3 lakh.

Promoter contribution is 5 per cent or more of the sanctioned project cost, depending on the banker's norms. The loan is a composite loan covering both term loan and working capital, it is collateral free, and it is covered under CGTMSE of the Government of India together with the Manipur Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs and Startups.

Project cost includes capital expenditure plus three months of working capital. Cost of land cannot be included. Cost of a ready-built, long-leased or rented work shed, workshop or shop may be included, but only for a maximum period of two years.

How is the subsidy released?

This is where most applicants misunderstand the scheme. The subsidy does not arrive as a lump sum in your account.

The Planning Department releases the subsidy amount to the bank once the bank sanctions the loan. The bank then releases the subsidy to the beneficiary on a pro-rata basis, corresponding to each instalment of the loan it disburses. If the bank disburses in three tranches, the subsidy arrives in three matching tranches.

Repayment of the loan with interest is entirely the applicant's responsibility, on the bank's terms. Closing the loan account before the end of the loan period requires approval from both the Planning Department and the bank.

What documents are required?

How to apply for One Family One Livelihood

1. Open startupmanipur.in and go to the application portal at apply.startupmanipur.in.
2. Choose New Registration, or sign in with an existing Startup India account.
3. Select the CMESS stage, which is the stage that carries the One Family One Livelihood objective. Submit only one application; multiple applications are rejected.
4. Enter your personal, residence and age details, and your enterprise's registration details.
5. Upload your detailed project report showing capital expenditure and three months of working capital, keeping land cost out of the calculation.
6. Upload supporting documents; residence proof, business registration, lease or rent agreement, Aadhaar and bank details, and submit.
7. Attend document verification and the personal interview when the Startup Cell calls you.
8. Complete the bank review, where the financing bank assesses the project's bankability.
9. Complete the compulsory seven-day Entrepreneurship Development Programme within 60 days of selection. Banks cannot release the loan until this is finished.
10. Receive the bank's loan sanction, after which the Planning Department releases the 30 per cent subsidy to the bank for pro-rata pass-through to you.

Which sectors are covered?

The scheme covers commercially viable and bankable ventures in any sector, naming agriculture, horticulture, food processing, animal husbandry, handloom and handicrafts, retail, tourism, services and manufacturing. The guidelines add that all viable sectors will be supported without preference to any single sector, and that overall concentration in one sector will be avoided.

Who decides the applications?

Two bodies do the work. The CMESS Committee, chaired by the Administrative Secretary (Planning), grants access to all assistance and incentives under the scheme. Its members include the Director of Trade, Commerce and Industries, the Director of the relevant line department (Agriculture, Horticulture, Veterinary or Tourism), representatives of the lead bank, SBI and the funding bank, the MSME Development Institute and the mentoring network, with the Director (Planning) as Member Secretary.

The Technical Appraisal Committee, chaired by the Director of Trade, Commerce and Industries, does the technical scoring. It includes the Joint Director of MSME-DI Imphal, relevant line department directors, bank representatives, the Managing Director of the Manipur State Cooperative Bank, two Startup Cell representatives and a nominated successful entrepreneur, with the Joint Director (Planning) as Member Secretary.

Eligible lenders are all nationalised banks, private sector banks, state cooperative banks and rural banks.

What happens after the money is disbursed?

Verification is aggressive by design. 50 per cent physical verification is carried out by the concerned District Industries Centre, and 25 per cent of those DIC-monitored projects are re-verified by a Monitoring Committee chaired by the Director (Planning), with members from the Finance Department, the lead bank, the financing bank, line departments and the Startup Cell as Member Convener. The Director (Planning) reviews scheme progress quarterly.

The stated purpose of this is to assess scheme impact and ensure proper utilisation of government subsidy. Diverting the money away from the sanctioned project puts the subsidy at risk of recovery.

Common reasons an application fails

• Bank default history, which surfaces at the bank review stage and is an explicit disqualification.
• Subsidy already drawn under CMESS, Startup, Stand Up or PMEGP.
• Second applicant from the same household, which the one-member rule bars.
• Unit older than two years, unless it is a tourism-registered homestay.
• Land cost loaded into the project report, which the guidelines exclude outright.
• EDP training not completed within 60 days, which stalls loan release even after selection.
• A project the bank does not consider viable. The subsidy is tied to bank sanction, so a weak business case ends the process regardless of eligibility.

Help and grievance redressal

• Toll-free helpline: 1800 345 3831
• Support line: 7085037192, 11 am to 5 pm
• Email: contact@startupmanipur.in
• Office: Planning Department, Government of Manipur, Imphal – 795001

Applying is free. No agent can guarantee selection, and no official will ask for your OTP or your bank password.

How to check your application status

An application filed under CMESS for One Family One Livelihood moves through several distinct stages, submission, document verification, personal interview, bank review, EDP training and finally bank sanction with subsidy release, so there is no single "approved or rejected" moment. Checking status means finding out which of these stages the file is currently sitting at.

On the portal.

1. Go to apply.startupmanipur.in and log in with the same credentials used to submit the application.
2. Open the applicant dashboard. The application carries a reference number generated at the time of submission; this is what the Startup Cell and any bank official will ask for if you call or visit in person.
3. The dashboard reflects stage changes as the Startup Cell updates them, typically after document verification is completed, after the interview is held, and after the financing bank records its decision. There is no SMS or email notification system described in the scheme guidelines, so the applicant is expected to check the dashboard rather than wait for a push update.

By phone or in person.

• Call the toll-free helpline 1800 345 3831, or the support line 7085037192 between 11 am and 5 pm, and quote the application reference number.
• Email contact@startupmanipur.in with the reference number if a phone line is unavailable.
• Visit or call the Planning Department, Government of Manipur, Imphal, which functions as the nodal office for CMESS, or the District Industries Centre handling the physical verification of your file if it has already reached that stage.

Once a loan is sanctioned, the subsidy itself is not something the applicant tracks separately: the Planning Department transfers it to the financing bank, and the bank passes it through against each loan disbursal. From that point, the more useful status check is with the bank branch handling the loan account, since it is the branch, not the Startup Cell, that knows how much of the sanctioned amount and matching subsidy has actually been disbursed so far.