NABARD Grade A Current Affairs — 4 October 2026

India's budget allocation for the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has risen more than fivefold, from ₹27,663 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,40,528.78 crore in 2026-27. This reflects a sustained policy shift toward agricultural modernisation, rural credit expansion, and farmer income support. The increase spans flagship schemes including PM-KISAN, PM Fasal Bima Yojana, and the Agricultural Infrastructure Fund, all of which are tested directly in RBI, NABARD, and UPSC competitive examinations.

The fivefold jump in the agriculture ministry's budget over 13 years is not simply a fiscal number — it represents a structural transformation in how India finances its agrarian economy. Three distinct policy levers have driven this expansion.

First, direct income support: PM-KISAN (launched 2019) transfers ₹6,000 per year in three instalments directly to farmer bank accounts, making it one of the largest DBT programmes globally. This is a fiscal mechanism the RBI examiner connects to financial inclusion and priority sector lending targets.

Second, risk coverage: PM Fasal Bima Yojana and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme protect farm income against weather shocks. NABARD's role in refinancing these credit-linked products is a recurring exam angle.

Third, infrastructure and credit: The Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore, and NABARD's own refinancing mandate, bridge the credit gap in post-harvest and rural logistics infrastructure.

For UPSC, this budget trajectory connects to GS-III themes of food security, agricultural subsidies versus investment, and inclusive growth. The examiner's test beneath this number is whether the aspirant understands the delivery mechanism — DBT, cooperative credit, crop insurance — not just the headline allocation. The shift from input subsidies to direct benefit transfers, and from ad-hoc relief to structural insurance, is the conceptual spine of modern Indian agricultural policy.

The Indian government has extended the RoDTEP scheme — which refunds embedded taxes and duties on exported goods not captured by other mechanisms — until 31 December 2026. Announced on 2 October 2026, the extension ensures exporters continue receiving rebates on levies like electricity duties, mandi taxes, and fuel costs embedded in supply chains. RoDTEP replaced the earlier MEIS scheme after WTO compliance concerns and has been operational since January 2021.

RoDTEP stands for Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products. It is a demand-side export promotion scheme administered by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Its core purpose is to refund taxes and levies borne by exporters that are not rebated through any other mechanism — such as GST input tax credits or duty drawback. These include state-level levies like electricity duties, mandi taxes, stamp duties on export documents, and the central fuel tax embedded in transportation costs.

RoDTEP replaced the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) in January 2021. MEIS was found to be non-compliant with WTO rules because it provided subsidies linked to export performance, which the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) prohibits. RoDTEP, by contrast, only remits taxes actually paid — making it WTO-compliant.

Benefits are issued as transferable electronic scrips credited to the exporter's ledger account on the ICEGATE portal, administered by CBIC. These scrips can be used to pay basic customs duty or transferred to other importers.

The extension to 31 December 2026 signals continuity of India's export support architecture during a period of global trade uncertainty. For UPSC and NABARD aspirants, the key static knowledge is the WTO compliance angle, the replacement of MEIS, and the mechanism of scrip-based rebate delivery. For RBI aspirants, the trade financing and current account implications — reducing exporters' embedded cost burden — are the relevant connection.