NABARD Grade A Current Affairs — 25 August 2026

India is pivoting toward regenerative agriculture — a farming approach that restores soil health, enhances biodiversity, and sequesters carbon rather than depleting land. Unlike conventional Green Revolution methods reliant on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, regenerative practices include natural farming, agroforestry, cover cropping, and zero-budget natural farming. The government is promoting these through schemes like the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, aiming to build climate resilience while reducing input costs for farmers.

Regenerative agriculture is a system-level approach to farming that goes beyond sustainability — the goal is not merely to sustain existing soil quality but to actively restore degraded land. Its core principles include: minimising tillage to protect soil structure, maintaining continuous ground cover, promoting plant diversity, integrating livestock, and eliminating or sharply reducing synthetic chemical inputs.

In the Indian context, this connects to several converging policy concerns. First, the long-term consequences of the Green Revolution — which dramatically raised yields but depleted aquifers, caused soil salinisation, and created heavy pesticide dependency — have become undeniable in states like Punjab and Haryana. Second, climate change is increasing the frequency of drought and flooding events, making soil organic matter (which improves water retention and aeration) a strategic resource. Third, the rising cost of chemical inputs is squeezing farm incomes, making low-external-input farming financially attractive.

Key government interventions include: Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), which promotes organic farming clusters; Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), championed in Andhra Pradesh and adopted under the National Mission for Natural Farming (NMNF); and the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. NABARD plays a crucial role by financing Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and watershed development projects that underpin the transition to regenerative systems. The conceptual link between soil carbon sequestration and India's NDC commitments under the Paris Agreement also makes this topic relevant to climate policy questions.

The Department of Defence Production (DDP) has notified the 6th Positive Indigenisation List (PIL) under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, covering 405 strategically important defence items. These items — including ammunition, weapons systems, and high-technology components — are now reserved exclusively for domestic procurement, barring import. The cumulative count across all six PILs now stands at over 4,500 items, signalling India's sustained push to reduce defence import dependence and build indigenous manufacturing capacity.

The Positive Indigenisation List (PIL) is a central instrument of India's defence self-reliance strategy under Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Notified by the Department of Defence Production (DDP), which operates under the Ministry of Defence, each PIL designates specific defence items — ranging from simple spares to complex weapons systems — that the Indian Armed Forces must procure exclusively from domestic manufacturers after a stipulated timeline. Import of listed items is prohibited beyond that date.

The mechanism works on a time-bound import embargo: once an item enters the PIL, the private sector and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) are incentivised to develop domestic production capability before the embargo kicks in. This creates a guaranteed demand signal for Indian industry.

The policy problem being solved is structural: India has historically been among the world's largest defence importers, spending billions in foreign exchange on items that could potentially be manufactured domestically. The PILs directly address this by creating a sequenced roadmap for import substitution.

For competitive exams, the key distinctions are: (1) DDP is the notifying authority, not MoD directly; (2) PILs cover both ammunition and high-technology systems — not just basic equipment; (3) each successive list expands scope, testing whether aspirants track the list number and cumulative count; (4) the policy connects to Priority Sector Lending in a RBI context — defence manufacturing MSMEs benefiting from these contracts can access PSL-eligible credit. NABARD aspirants should note rural defence manufacturing clusters as a rural industrial development angle.