NCDC Nandini Sahakar Scheme

What is the NCDC Nandini Sahakar scheme?

Nandini Sahakar is a women-focused framework of financial assistance run by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a statutory corporation set up by an Act of Parliament in 1963 and now under the administrative control of the Ministry of Cooperation. According to the NCDC scheme document, Nandini Sahakar combines credit linkage, project formulation, hand-holding and capacity development so that women cooperatives can take up business-model-based activities.

NCDC operates on open market principles and does not draw budgetary support from the government for its lending. Its assistance under Nandini Sahakar is therefore credit, not a grant: a loan for infrastructure, margin money and working capital, which the society repays, sweetened by interest subvention and by subsidy dovetailed from other central and state schemes.

Nandini Sahakar covers three funding heads:

• Infrastructure: creation, modernisation, expansion, repair and renovation of project facilities.
• Margin money, the society's own contribution needed to raise working capital from a bank.
• Working capital, the money needed to run day-to-day operations.

NCDC's stated purpose is to improve the socio-economic status of women by supporting entrepreneurial dynamism through women cooperatives. The corporation records that since 1963 and up to FY 2020-21 it sanctioned Rs 3,655.30 crore and released Rs 2,958.29 crore for women cooperatives, and that almost 97 per cent of that cumulative assistance was released in the seven years to 2020-21.

Who is eligible for Nandini Sahakar?

A society can apply if:

• It is a women cooperative society registered under any State or Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act in India, or any cooperative society with a minimum of 50 per cent women members at the primary level.
• Its bye-laws permit the activity for which the loan is sought.
• It has been in operation for at least three months, in the case of projects for new or innovative activities.
• Under NCDC's norms for direct funding it has a positive net worth with no erosion of paid-up share capital, audited accounts up to the previous year, and no major default in repayment to NCDC, banks or financial institutions.

Who cannot apply:

• Individual women, self-help groups that are not registered cooperatives, proprietorships, partnerships and companies cannot apply. Nandini Sahakar lends only to registered cooperative societies, so a woman entrepreneur must first be part of such a society.
• A cooperative with less than 50 per cent women members at primary level is not eligible under Nandini Sahakar, though it may qualify under other NCDC schemes.
• Societies proposing urban housing projects are not eligible, this is the one activity the scheme document excludes.
• A society whose share capital is eroded, whose audit is in arrears, or which is in major default to a lender is not eligible for direct funding.

NCDC also states plainly that meeting the eligibility criteria does not by itself entitle a cooperative to funding. Every proposal is appraised for technical feasibility, financial viability, the society's past performance, the management's experience, its capacity to raise its own share and the adequacy of security.

How much money does Nandini Sahakar give?

There is no minimum or maximum cap on financial assistance in absolute terms. What is capped is the project cost, and that cap depends on how long the society has been running:

The project cost includes infrastructure, margin money and working capital.

Funding pattern for infrastructure creation

• Direct funding: NCDC lends 70 per cent to the society, which contributes 30 per cent.
• Through a State Government or UT: NCDC gives 90 per cent as loan to the State, which passes on 50 per cent as loan and 40 per cent as share capital, with the society contributing 10 per cent. Where the State does not contribute the share capital, that 40 per cent is also passed on as a loan.

Margin money is funded at 100 per cent as a loan, subject to assessment. Working capital is provided as a loan as per requirement. For new and innovative project activities, women cooperatives are funded at a debt-equity ratio of 80:20 under direct funding.

Loan period is 5 to 8 years including 1 to 2 years of moratorium on principal repayment. Interest is the NCDC circular rate applicable from time to time, reduced by 2 per cent interest subvention for new and innovative activities or 1 per cent for all other activities, payable as an incentive for timely repayment.

Which businesses does Nandini Sahakar fund?

Nandini Sahakar assists any business-plan-based activity or service mandated to NCDC except urban housing. The scheme document lists agro-processing, supply chains, value addition, logistics, farm mechanisation, retail, marketing of food grains, input supply, plantation, horticulture, rural housing, weaker-section programmes, tribal cooperatives, dairy, poultry, livestock, fishery, handloom, coir, jute, sericulture, computerisation, textiles, infrastructure of PACS and credit or marketing cooperatives, agriculture insurance, water conservation works, tourism, hospitality, transport, hospital and health care, yoga wellness facilities, education, power generation and distribution, and non-conventional and renewable energy.

How to apply for the NCDC Nandini Sahakar scheme

1. Register or verify the society. Confirm that the cooperative is registered under a State or Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and that its bye-laws allow the proposed activity, and that women hold at least 50 per cent of primary membership.
2. Pass a board resolution authorising the loan proposal and naming the office-bearer who will sign and correspond with NCDC.
3. Prepare a Detailed Project Report. Use the sample DPRs published on ncdc.in as a starting point and set out capital cost, margin money, working capital need, revenue projections and repayment capacity.
4. Assemble the papers, registration certificate, bye-laws, audited accounts up to the previous year, membership list showing women members, and the security documents you propose to offer.
5. Submit the proposal to the NCDC Regional Office for your state, or route it through the State Government or UT Administration if you want the state-channel funding pattern. NCDC has 18 Regional Offices besides its Head Office at 4, Siri Institutional Area, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, and the scheme document says these offices will help women cooperatives in the local language with the application.
6. Answer the appraisal queries. NCDC carries out its standard appraisal and due diligence before sanction, and will ask for clarifications on viability, security and the society's finances.
7. Complete security and documentation after sanction, then draw funds as per the terms of the release letter.

Note that the dedicated portal nandini.ncdc.in mentioned in the 2021 scheme booklet no longer resolves. Use the Regional Office route and the general loan application form on ncdc.in, and confirm the current filing channel with the Regional Office before you courier papers.

What security must the society offer?

Under direct funding, a cooperative may offer any one or a combination of:

• Mortgage of assets, including assets to be created under the project, to the extent of 1.5 times the NCDC loan.
• Guarantee by the State, UT or Central Government.
• Pledge of FDRs of scheduled or nationalised banks to the extent of 1.2 times the loan.
• Guarantee by central PSUs, statutory bodies or CSR foundations of central PSUs.
• Guarantee from scheduled or nationalised banks.
• Hypothecation and assignment of government bonds or securities to the extent of 1.2 times the loan.
• Guarantee of a credible cooperative institution with a proven track record.
• Guarantee of SFAC, NEDFi, SIDBI or the Credit Guarantee Fund.
• Personal guarantee of directors or members in the form of fixed deposit receipts.

Why Nandini Sahakar proposals get rejected

• Eroded share capital or negative net worth, which fails NCDC's direct funding norm.
• Audit in arrears, accounts must be audited up to the previous year within six months of the close of the financial year.
• Default history of the society, or of another cooperative on whose board the same directors sit.
• A weak DPR with unrealistic revenue projections or no clear repayment source.
• Inadequate security against the loan sought.
• Under 50 per cent women membership, which pushes the proposal out of Nandini Sahakar into NCDC's general schemes.
• Urban housing as the project activity.

Rejection on viability grounds is not permanent. Societies routinely resubmit after strengthening the project's own contribution, adding a guarantee, or converging a subsidy that reduces the loan requirement.

Is Nandini Sahakar still running?

Yes. Nandini Sahakar appears as scheme F in NCDC's Pattern of Assistance annexure dated July 2025, with the same eligibility, project cost ceilings, loan period, interest subvention and funding pattern as the 2021 booklet. The scheme document says Nandini Sahakar has no sunset clause, because it runs on NCDC's own funds without government budgetary support; the initial time horizon stated in the booklet was five years from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26, and the July 2025 annexure confirms the framework continued beyond that booklet.

Training and capacity development

Capacity building of women cooperatives is a continuing NCDC activity attached to Nandini Sahakar. Women members are trained through NCDC-LINAC at Gurugram or at the corporation's 18 Regional Training Centres. NCDC also runs the Sahakar Cooptube NCDC India channel on YouTube with guidance videos on forming a cooperative society in 21 languages, which is the usual starting point for a group of women who do not yet have a registered society.

Help and grievance redressal

• NCDC Head Office: 4, Siri Institutional Area, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016
• Phone: 011-20862512 and 011-20862866
• Email: mail@ncdc.in
• Regional Offices: contact details for all 18 offices are listed on ncdc.in

Applying to NCDC costs nothing beyond the society's own documentation expenses. No agent can secure a sanction, every proposal goes through NCDC's appraisal and due diligence before any money is released.

How to check your application status

Nandini Sahakar has no dedicated online tracking portal, since the nandini.ncdc.in link named in the 2021 booklet no longer resolves and NCDC does not run a public loan-status dashboard on ncdc.in. Status follow-up is offline, through the same NCDC Regional Office that received the proposal.

1. Note your reference details at submission. Keep a copy of the covering letter, the date of submission, the name of the officer who received the papers, and any acknowledgment or dispatch number given by the Regional Office. NCDC correspondence on a proposal is generally tracked against the society's name and the Regional Office file, not a system-generated application ID, so these details are what an officer will ask for when you call.

2. Call or write to the Regional Office first. The office that is appraising the proposal is best placed to say whether it is still awaiting a document, under technical appraisal, with the sanctioning authority, or already sanctioned. Contact details for all 18 Regional Offices are listed on ncdc.in.

3. Escalate to the Head Office if the Regional Office does not respond. Write or call the Head Office at 4, Siri Institutional Area, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, phone 011-20862512 or 011-20862866, or email mail@ncdc.in, quoting the Regional Office name and the date the proposal was filed.

4. Expect appraisal-stage queries rather than a single yes-or-no update. Because NCDC appraises every proposal for viability, security and the society's finances before sanction, a status check midway through often surfaces a specific clarification NCDC is waiting on (an audited account, a security document, a DPR revision) rather than a simple pending-or-approved answer. Responding to that query promptly is what moves the file forward.

5. After sanction, track disbursal through the same office. Once a proposal is sanctioned, the release of funds depends on completing security documentation and satisfying the conditions in the sanction letter; the Regional Office that sanctioned the loan is also the point of contact for confirming that these conditions have been met and funds released.

Since Nandini Sahakar routes some funding through State Governments or UT Administrations, a society that applied via the state channel should also check with the nodal state cooperation department handling the file, in addition to the NCDC Regional Office.