- Why in news
- On 13 March 2026, PIB published a explainer on the SWAMIH Fund, saying over 58,000 homes have been completed and SWAMIH Fund-2 (₹15,000 crore) was announced in Budget 2025-26.
- What it is
- SWAMIH is the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Investment Fund, launched in 2019. It gives priority debt to viable but stalled residential projects so they can be finished and handed over. It is a Category-II Alternative Investment Fund under SEBI rules, managed by SBICAP Ventures.
- Fund type
- SWAMIH is a Category-II Alternative Investment Fund, regulated under SEBI rules. It is described as a first-of-its-kind social impact investment vehicle.
- Sponsor and manager
- The Government of India is the Sponsor, with the Department of Economic Affairs overseeing it. SBICAP Ventures Ltd, a wholly-owned SBI subsidiary, manages the fund.
- Corpus
- The fund has ₹15,531 crore from the Government, PSU banks and LIC.
Don’t confuse with SWAMIH vs PMAY-U: PMAY-U (2015) creates and gives access to pucca housing for EWS, LIG and MIG households. SWAMIH only completes stalled projects.
Don’t confuse with SWAMIH vs ARHCs: ARHCs give rental housing for migrants and urban workers. SWAMIH funds completion of homes for buyers.
Schemes: 52 Prelims questions since 2013, 10 in Prelims 2026 alone. They test features, the period and who funds it. In Mains, 33 news-triggered questions, mostly GS3.
Why it matters
- Completing stalled homes protects homebuyers and restores confidence in the housing sector.
- Revival supports jobs, materials demand and tax revenue; the release cites 30,000+ jobs and ₹6,900 crore+ in revenue.
Problems
- Only net worth positive, viable projects qualify, so deeply insolvent projects are left out.
- Stalled demand is large: about 1,509 projects (4.58 lakh units) needing ~₹55,000 crore before SWAMIH, against a much smaller fund.
Way forward
- Use blended finance in Fund-2 to bring in more private and bank capital.
- Strengthen RERA enforcement and project-level monitoring to stop projects stalling again.
Put in your answer
Scale of stalled housing: A study commissioned by SBI Ventures found about 1,509 stalled projects with ~4.58 lakh units, needing ~₹55,000 crore.
Financial sustainability: About ₹3,500 crore of the roughly ₹7,000 crore invested by the Government has been recovered.
Expert Committee 2023: The MoHUA Expert Committee said stress in real estate stems largely from gaps in financial viability and recommended a proactive role for SWAMIH.
- 2007Prelims Q99Which entity wholly owned the National Housing Bank, a housing finance institution
- 2023Prelims Q30Which infrastructure sectors include affordable housing, mass transport, health care, renewable energy
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: A scheme with numbers; UPSC has asked scheme features in Prelims (52 of 327), but this release is explanatory with few settled facts.
Worth revising until Prelims 2027: most news questions come within two years of the event.