{"id":87881,"date":"2026-02-15T13:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=87881"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:22:30","slug":"urban-challenge-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/urban-challenge-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Challenge Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Urban Challenge Fund Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister of India approved the launch of the Urban Challenge Fund (UCF).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Urban Challenge Fund<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a new <\/span><b>centrally sponsored scheme<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the <\/span><b>Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It aims to build <\/span><b>resilient, productive, inclusive and climate-responsive cities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, positioning those as key driver of the country\u2019s next phase of economic growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Financial Outlay:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Total Central assistance <\/span><b>of \u20b91 lakh crore.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Tenure:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It will be operational from <\/span><b>FY 2025\u201326 to FY 2030\u201331<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with an <\/span><b>extendable <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">implementation <\/span><b>period up to FY 2033\u201334.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Features of the Urban Challenge Fund<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A minimum of <\/span><b>50 per cent of project<\/b> <b>financing <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has to be <\/span><b>mobilised from market sources,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including municipal bonds, bank loans and Public\u2013Private Partnerships (PPPs).<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The remaining share may be contributed by <\/span><b>States, Union Territories<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (UTs), Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) or other sources.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Projects will be selected through a <\/span><b>transparent and competitive challenge mode<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, ensuring support to high-impact and reform-oriented proposals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Focus area:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A strong thrust on reforms across <\/span><b>Urban Governance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Market &amp; Financial systems, <\/span><b>Operational efficiency, and Urban Planning<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A dedicated <\/span><b>\u20b95,000 crore corpus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will enhance the <\/span><b>creditworthiness of 4223 cities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including <\/span><b>Tier- II and Tier-III cities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, particularly for first-time access to market finance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>The Fund will cover:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All cities with a population of <\/span><b>10 lakh or more<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2025 estimates);<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All State and <\/span><b>Union Territory capitals not covered above<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major industrial cities with a <\/span><b>population of 1 lakh or more<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, <\/span><b>all ULBs in hilly States, North-Eastern States<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>and smaller ULBs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with <\/span><b>population below 1 lakh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will be eligible for support under the Credit Repayment Guarantee Scheme.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2227986&amp;reg=3&amp;lang=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <strong>PIB<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Urban Challenge Fund is a new centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Read more about Urban Challenge Fund, Tenure, Features, Focus Area, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":88161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23,5439],"class_list":{"0":"post-87881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"tag-urban-challenge-fund","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87881"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88232,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881\/revisions\/88232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}