● Problem Statement SIH26092 · Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
The scheme is right there.
Nobody tells you it is yours.
NSFDC lends ₹775 crore a year to SC entrepreneurs at 4–6% — but 61% of beneficiaries hear about it
from a relative, not the government. SahayaPath asks six questions and tells you which scheme fits,
what you will pay every month, and exactly which channel partner to walk into.
61%
learn about schemes from friends, not official channels
93%
struggle with collateral requirements
77%
face repeated office visits
4 mo
average application to disbursement
100+
channel partners you must route through
Source: MoSJE Evaluation Study of NSFDC · NSFDC annual disbursement figures FY 2025-26
The three modules the PS asks for
What SahayaPath does
🧭
Smart Scheme Recommender
Six plain-language questions — in text or voice — and a rule engine plus RAG pipeline ranks all 11 NSFDC schemes with a match score and an explanation you can actually read.
Rule engine + RAG + LLM
₹
Scheme-Aware Calculator
Not a generic EMI tool. It pre-loads the matched scheme's ceiling, rate and moratorium, capitalises moratorium interest, and warns when the EMI crosses 30% of your income.
Moratorium-aware amortisation
📍
Partner Locator & Router
Shows only the partners authorised for your scheme, colour-coded by fund utilisation and NPA — so your application never gets routed to a partner that cannot process it.
Geo-filter + health routing
Why the locator matters
Money never moves directly
NSFDC does not lend to citizens. It lends to channel partners, who on-lend. Picking the wrong
partner is the single most common reason an application dies.
NSFDC
Section 8 company under MoSJE
lends at 1.5–4%
Channel Partners
SCAs · PSBs · RRBs · NBFC-MFIs
on-lend at 4–15%
Beneficiary
SC entrepreneurs & students
repays the partner
From the problem statement: “Direct loan applications are not entertained. Instead,
funds are routed through a Channel Finance System comprising over 100 Channel Partners” — and
applications must not be sent to partners with high NPAs or overdues.
Beyond the brief
Four things that close the loop
🎙
Voice-first interface
75% of the target users are rural with low digital literacy. Speaking to the app in Hindi is not a feature — it is the access route.
📋
Document checklist
The exact papers your matched scheme needs, ticked off before you travel. Directly attacks the 77% repeated-visit statistic.
📊
Application tracker
Submitted → verification → PCC → sanctioned → disbursed. Visible status is what transparency actually means here.
✨
Success stories
Real repayment numbers from people in the same district. Financial literacy delivered through the channel people already trust.
Positioning
One line for the judges
“myScheme tells you which schemes exist. SahayaPath tells you which scheme is right for you,
how much you will pay per month, and exactly where to go apply — in your own language.”