• The Ministry of Minority Affairs is providing grant-in-aid assistance for strengthening the infrastructure & operational capability of State Channelising Agencies (SCAs), for effective implementation of NMDFC schemes.
• A new Annual Family Income eligibility criterion of up to Rs.6.00 lacs per annum has been introduced for greater coverage of persons from the targeted minority communities.
• Quantum of loans under the Term Loan scheme increased from Rs.10.00 lacs to Rs.30.00 lacs, while under Micro Finance scheme, it has been increased from Rs.0.50 lacs to Rs.1.50 lacs per SHG member.
• Under the Education Loan scheme, the quantum of loan has been increased from Rs.5.00 lacs to Rs.20.00 lacs for domestic courses & from Rs.10.00 lacs to Rs.30.00 lacs for courses abroad.
• Self Declaration/Self Certification/Self Attestation of documents has been adopted in case of Religion Certificate, Family Income, Residence Proof, Mark Sheet, etc.
• Transfer of loan directly in Bank Account of Beneficiary through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT)/ Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Insurance of beneficiary and their assets to safeguard against any untoward incident.

National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) :

• The National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) is a not for profit company under the companies act 1956. It works under the aegis of Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and was constituted in 1994.
• NMDFC aims to provide concessional finance to the notified Minorities for the self-employment/ income generation activities.

Minority Communities in India :

• The notified Minorities under the National Commission  for Minorities Act, 1992, are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists & Parsis. Jain community was also added into the list of notified Minority Communities in January 2014.