New Delhi, July 22 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government sanctioned Rs.28,996.15 crore under 126,508 loan accounts to SC/ST and women entrepreneurs over the last three fiscal years.

The finance minister, in reply to a Rajya Sabha question, said the objective of the Stand-Up India Scheme was to provide loans from scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) of value between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.1 crore to at least one scheduled caste (SC) or scheduled tribe (ST) borrower and one woman borrower per Bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise in the manufacturing, services, or trading sector and also for activities allied to agriculture.

Apart from linking prospective borrowers with banks for loans, the onlin...