Mukhyamantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana (MSSY)

What was Mukhyamantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana (MSSY): literally the Chief Minister's Solar Self-Employment Scheme; was an Uttarakhand government initiative that combined renewable energy with self-employment. It helped residents of the state set up small grid-connected solar power plants and earn income by selling the electricity they generated to the grid.

According to the state's Swarojgar portal (msy.uk.gov.in), the wider Chief Minister's self-employment programme was created to support enterprising youth of the state, especially migrants who returned to Uttarakhand during Covid-19, skilled and unskilled artisans and handicraftsmen, and educated urban and rural unemployed persons, by providing loan facilities through nationalised and scheduled commercial banks, state cooperative banks and regional rural banks to establish an enterprise, service or business. MSSY was the solar-energy variant of this idea: the "enterprise" was a solar power plant.

The Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA), the state's nodal agency for renewable energy under the Additional Sources of Energy department, handled the solar side; grid connectivity, net metering and coordination with the power utility.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat launched Mukhyamantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana on 8 October 2020 at the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Auditorium in Dehradun, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 reverse migration. The state set an initial target of self-employment for around 10,000 youth and returnee migrants through the scheme, and later opened an MSSY Phase 2, for which UREDA publishes a scheme document (updated March 2023) and lists of empanelled installer firms on its solar-schemes page.

How large is an MSSY solar plant and what does it earn?

MSSY was built around a standard 25 kW grid-connected solar power plant for each beneficiary. According to the launch reporting, a 25 kW unit needs roughly 1.5 to 2 nali of land and generates about 38,000 units of electricity a year, which the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) agreed to purchase for 25 years under a power-purchase agreement. That long purchase commitment is what converts the plant into a steady income stream rather than a one-off build. Some widely circulated summaries put the plant cost near Rs 10 lakh and describe a financing split of about a 70% bank loan, a 25% government subsidy and a 5% beneficiary contribution, with a feed-in tariff of roughly Rs 4.64 per unit; these specific figures appear on installer and aggregator sites rather than on an accessible UREDA page, so treat them as indicative and confirm the exact numbers in the official MSSY scheme document before relying on them.

Is the scheme still open?

No; MSSY is closed to new applicants. On the official Uttarakhand Swarojgar portal, Mukhyamantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana is listed under "Inactive Schemes", alongside the earlier Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana (MSY) and MSY-Nano. The portal's currently active self-employment schemes are Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana 2.0 (MSY 2.0) and the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Paryatan Swarojgar Yojana. Anyone looking for a live self-employment or solar scheme should check those, or contact UREDA about its current solar programmes such as PM Surya Ghar. Note that UREDA's own solar-schemes page still hosts the MSSY and MSSY Phase 2 scheme documents and empanelled-firm lists, so if you are pursuing an application already in the pipeline, confirm the live status with UREDA directly rather than assuming from the self-employment portal alone.

Who was eligible for MSSY?

When the scheme was open, the intended beneficiaries were:

You could apply if:

• You were a resident of Uttarakhand.
• You were among the priority groups — a migrant who returned to the state during Covid-19, a skilled or unskilled artisan, or an educated urban or rural unemployed person.
• You had own or leased land suitable for a solar power plant.
• You were able to take a bank loan and meet the lender's conditions.

You cannot apply now because:

• MSSY is inactive. It is no longer accepting new applications, so no one is currently eligible to enrol.

How did the scheme work?

MSSY brought together three pieces:

• The beneficiary provided the land; owned or leased, and set up the solar power plant.
• Banks financed the plant through the state Swarojgar loan framework, which channels credit through nationalised, commercial, cooperative and regional rural banks.
• UPCL, the state power distribution utility, purchased the electricity generated by the grid-connected plant, giving the beneficiary a regular income.

This turned a one-time investment in a solar plant into a steady earning opportunity, which is why the scheme was framed as "solar self-employment".

What documents were needed?

How to apply for MSSY (for reference. The scheme is now closed)

Because MSSY is now inactive, this is a record of how the process worked rather than a live application route:

1. The applicant registered on the state Swarojgar portal (msy.uk.gov.in) or approached the district industries office / UREDA for the scheme.
2. The applicant submitted residence, identity, land and bank documents and a proposal for the solar power plant.
3. The proposal was processed for a bank loan under the Swarojgar loan framework, and UREDA coordinated the grid connectivity and net-metering arrangement with UPCL.
4. Once the plant was installed and connected, UPCL purchased the electricity, and the beneficiary repaid the loan from the income earned.

What are the verified limits of this information?

The core plant design is well corroborated: the launch reporting and UREDA's own scheme listing describe a 25 kW grid-connected plant, generating roughly 38,000 units a year, with a 25-year UPCL purchase commitment. What could not be confirmed from an accessible official page are the precise financial terms. The exact per-unit tariff paid by UPCL, the loan percentage and the margin-money subsidy share, because the detailed UREDA guideline documents for MSSY are published only as scanned PDFs. The indicative figures quoted above (around Rs 10 lakh cost, a 70/25/5 financing split and about Rs 4.64 per unit) come from installer and aggregator sites, not an official page, so applicants or researchers who need the exact numbers should download the official MSSY scheme document from UREDA or ask the agency directly.

What can a resident apply for instead today?

Because Mukhyamantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana is inactive, a resident who wants solar income or self-employment support now has two live routes to consider. The first is PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the central rooftop-solar scheme that UREDA helps implement in Uttarakhand, which offers a central subsidy on rooftop solar for households and lets a family cut its own power bill and sell surplus units. The second is Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana 2.0 (MSY 2.0), the state's current general self-employment scheme run through the Directorate of Industries, which finances a wide range of enterprises through bank loans with a margin-money subsidy. A person who was specifically interested in the solar-plant model of MSSY should speak to UREDA about current renewable-energy programmes, while someone who mainly wanted self-employment finance should approach the district industries office about MSY 2.0. Neither is identical to the old MSSY, so confirm the current terms directly rather than assuming the earlier scheme's conditions still apply.

Where to get help

• Uttarakhand Swarojgar portal: msy.uk.gov.in
• Toll-free helpline: +91-7617576909
• Investment Promotion & Facilitation Cell, C/O Directorate of Industries, Ajabpur Khurd, Haridwar Bypass Road, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248121
• UREDA (solar schemes): ureda.uk.gov.in

For a current solar or self-employment opportunity in place of the inactive MSSY, contact UREDA about its active renewable-energy schemes or the Directorate of Industries about Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana 2.0.