Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minorities/Handicapped Financial and Development Corporation (DSFDC)

Choosing the right scheme

• Starting an income-generating activity: the Composite Loan Scheme, if you are a Delhi resident from one of its target groups.
• Passed Class VIII, from a qualifying group: Dilli Swarojgar Yojna.
• Buying a light motor vehicle for a transport business: the Transport Loan Scheme.
• A professional or technical course: the Education Loan Scheme.
• A larger project with a Chartered Accountant-attested project report: the Big Loan Scheme.
• An artisan with a DSFDC loan who wants to exhibit at fairs: the Artisan Promotion Scheme.
• Youths who want training: the Training Scheme.

How applications work

The Composite Loan Scheme and Transport Loan Scheme forms are available from the headquarters in Rohini and from the branch offices. Submit the form with the processing fee, payable in favour of DSFDC.

Before you apply

• Check the income ceiling in the scheme's own document. Ceilings differ by scheme.
• The site gives no application dates, so check with a branch office first.
• The Big Loan Scheme depends on a national apex corporation's decision, which is made case by case.
• Use the Entrepreneur Guidance Cell at your branch, open 10 AM to 3 PM, for information before you apply.

What reviewers look for

Scheme documents ask for residency, membership of the target groups and income within the ceiling. For the Big Loan Scheme, the project report and five-year projections must be attested by a Chartered Accountant.

The Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Min. & Handicapped Finance & Development Corp. Ltd., known as DSFDC, is a fully owned undertaking of the Government of NCT of Delhi. It was incorporated on 29 January 1983 and lends to entrepreneurs from the groups it serves, working from its headquarters at Ambedkar Bhawan, Institutional Area, Rohini, and from three loan branch offices.

How its schemes work

Most of what DSFDC offers is loans. Its loan schemes are the Composite Loan Scheme, Dilli Swarojgar Yojna, the Transport Loan Scheme, the Education Loan Scheme and the Big Loan Scheme, and its loan schemes page lists them together with their application forms. Loans finance income-generating activities, and the Transport Loan Scheme finances a light motor vehicle under the LMV category for a transport business. Each loan application carries a processing fee payable in favour of DSFDC.

DSFDC also runs a Training Scheme for youths from its target groups, aimed at income-generating and job-oriented courses, and an Artisan Promotion Scheme for artisans who already hold a DSFDC loan. The site does not give application windows or closing dates for these schemes, so check with a branch office before you plan around one.

Some loans depend on national apex corporations. The Transport Loan and Big Loan Schemes both draw on term loans from them. For the Big Loan Scheme, the apex corporation decides at its sole discretion whether to finance a case. DSFDC is the state channelising agency for five national apex corporations: the National Scheduled Castes Financial & Development Corporation, the National Safai Karamcharis Financial & Development Corporation, the National Minorities Development & Financial Corporation, the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, and the National Handicapped Financial & Development Corporation.

Who can apply

Most schemes are open only to residents of Delhi. Each names the target groups it serves, and across the loan schemes these include Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, minorities and persons with disabilities. Family income ceilings apply to most loans, and they differ by scheme. The ceiling for one scheme does not apply to another, so read the figure in the document for the scheme you want.

Dilli Swarojgar Yojna applicants must have passed Class VIII and must have been Delhi residents for the last five years. The Education Loan Scheme is for students admitted to a government-recognised institution in India or abroad, for a course of no more than five years, and it sets a ceiling on parents' income. The Artisan Promotion Scheme is limited to artisans who already hold a DSFDC loan and are registered under MSME.

Repayment

The Transport Loan Scheme is repaid in 60 monthly instalments over five years, after a six-month moratorium period. For the Composite Loan Scheme, a guarantor must give blank post-dated cheques when the loan is above a set size.

Scale

The only number the corporation publishes on its website is a list of minority beneficiaries under the Composite Loan Scheme, numbered 1 to 64. The list covers 1 April 2015 to 14 June 2019. The site's listing describes it as the last five years, and the dates on the list do not match that description. It is the corporation's own count.

Locations

The headquarters is at Ambedkar Bhawan, Institutional Area, Rohini. The three loan branch offices are at Rajpur Road, Mangolpuri and Nand Nagri. The corporation's about page also describes three zonal offices, West, Central and East. Its website does not say whether the zonal offices and the branch offices are the same three places.

Who runs it

DSFDC is governed by a board of directors with representatives from the central government, the Government of NCT of Delhi, central government agencies and public figures recognised for their work with its target groups. Each branch has an Entrepreneur Guidance Cell open from 10 AM to 3 PM to share information.