Sidbi launches second window of Swavalamban Challenge Fund

Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has launched the second window of Swavalamban Challenge Fund (SCF) with Green Bharat as prioritised theme. The focus of the fund is on projects addressing the green, clean or efficient climate change. Other themes are sustainable livelihood, financial inclusion, and access to financial services and promoting entrepreneurship. A challenge fund is a financing support mechanism to allocate funds for specific purposes using competition among organisations. The proposals can be submitted for undertaking pilot (upper cap of INR 20 lakh) and scale-up (up to INR 35 lakh) initiatives. SCF is a part of Swavalamban Resource Facility being implemented by Sidbi in partnership with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO UK). The first window of SCF was launched in August this year.