Rs 3,000 crore as interest-free loans for Women...

Finance Minister Recognizing the potential of women's Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their success stories in the Telangana, the State government has decided to extend a massive Rs 3,000 crore as interest-free loans to SHGs in 2021-22.

Revealing this in the course of his budget presentation for 2021-22 in the State Assembly here on Thursday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said the women's SHGs in the State were forging ahead with the help and cooperation of the State government. "These groups are promoting greater awareness about thrift among women. There are 4,29,262 SHGs in the State with a total membership of 46,65,443 women. All these women are saving money and getting interest-free loans from banks, and they are repaying the loans regularly,"

Pointing out that in 2020-21, an amount of Rs 9,803 crore was made available by banks to SHG members in the State as interest-free loans, the Minister pointed out that the recovery rate of these loans was an impressive 97.25 per cent.