Strategic Planning and Product Innovation Department

In order to provide sustainable solutions to the agriculture and rural development related issues, there is a need to design and develop suite of credit and credit plus products and services for NABARD, its subsidiaries and banking sector at large, which will enhance NABARD’s visibility and engagement with stakeholders.

Accordingly, Strategic Planning and Product Innovation Department (SPPID) was set up as a new department on 01 January 2020 to bring in incremental innovation to its existing products and launch innovative products in tune with changing financial sector landscape, clientele needs and the emerging rural landscape, keeping in focus the mandate of NABARD.

Through its core functions, the Department provides critical insights into the environment, creates a visible focus, reinforces proficiency and realizes shared sense of purpose besides help in the Bank in taking informed decisions.

The scope of the department has now been expanded to cover digital and technological interventions of NABARD in the Rural Financial Institutions.

Core functions of the Department

Strategic Planning Functions

To ensure synergy among goals, objectives, and action plans of NABARD with its primary tasks and responsibility
To review the vision and mission statements and formulate short/medium/long term plans
To integrate new products into existing product lines based on the external and internal business environment
To evaluate the performance, culture, communications, etc., and carry out necessary refinement
To conduct stakeholder interactions, Town hall meetings, Seminars and Conferences on topical subjects to gain greater insight

Product Innovation Functions

To use private sector finance knowledge and deep sovereign relations of NABARD to deliver innovative products and solutions to effectively respond to the clients’ needs
To conduct market research on financial products & development activities and develop conceptual framework for product development
To examine the scope of expanding collaboration with new and emerging partnerships with corporate and philanthropic foundations.
To conduct updated analyses on critical market constraints, improve the products and instruments to provide tailored support to public and private sector clients by deploying tools of data analytics.
To scale up developmental facilitation and promotional initiatives of NABARD into business proposition.
To work in coordination with all the business departments of NABARD besides offering solutions based on research and analytics.
To spur innovative thinking and ideation amongst its staff.

Digital, technological and other interventions

To create an Enterprise Architecture and IT Governance framework
To digitize Kisan Credit Card loan process leading to setting up of KCC portal
To promote banking models for agri value chain financing
To scale up digital interventions in Rural Financial Institutions
NABARD has set up a dedicated Technology Facilitation Fund (TFF) from its profit to support the development of digital technology with the help of tech start-ups. Two proposals were sanctioned so far, under the fund.

Achievements

Five Year Strategy Plan titled “Pragati-1.0” encompassing business, developmental & supervisory perspectives of the Bank for the period 2023-24 to 2027-28 has been launched from 01 April 2023.
In close coordination with the Business Initiatives Department, this department redesigned the Rural Infrastructure Assistance to State Governments (RIAS) product with a judicious blend of credit and credit+ interventions both on Programme and Project mode of financing for accelerating infrastructure creation in the States.
Web portal developed for interest subvention claims of RRBs and RCBs for WSHGs under DAY-NRLM. The portal is live from 11 January 2024.
Web portal for settling Interest Subvention and Credit Guarantee Fee Claims under Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) Scheme of DA&FW, GoI. The AIF Interest Subvention Portal https://aifis.nabard.org jointly developed by DA&FW and NABARD was launched by the Hon’ble Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on 28 June 2024.
Signed Agreement with RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH) for integration of e-KCC (LOS Portal) with Unified Lending Interface (ULI) for sanction of KCC loan by Cooperative banks and RRBs.
NABARD has signed Letter of Intent with Asian Development Bank on 9th April 2024 for collaboration in multiple areas.
NABARD received the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) Award for the “CBS in Rural Cooperative Banks” initiative under the Financial Inclusion category.
Realising the benefits of lower premium and comprehensive coverage under the arrangement of NABARD facilitated Comprehensive Cyber Risk Insurance, many banks approached NABARD to enable them to avail cyber insurance. Building on last year’s success, SPPID once again facilitated the cyber insurance process for 2025 through a competitive bidding process on the Centralized Public Procurement (CPP) Portal. After successful evaluation, The New India Assurance Company Ltd emerged as the lowest bidder for FY 2025-26, offering a significantly reduced premium of 0.54% of the limit of liability—a major reduction compared to the previous year. Additionally, after the issuance of the current policy, the total combined limit of liability across all insured banks will be around Rs2,000 crore, ensuring a strong financial safety net for RCBs and RRBs against cybercrimes. As on 31st August 2025, 254 banks (RCBs and RRBs) are currently under NABARD facilitated Cyber Insurance.
NABARD has signed Memorandum of Understanding with "State of Maharashtra's Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART)", Government of Maharashtra on 12 July 2024 to establish a partnership for implementation of the FPO Accelerator project, aimed at accelerating the development of FPOs by providing them with comprehensive support services.
NABARD participated in the Global Fintech Fest 2024, Theme of the event was, "Blueprint for the Next Decade of Finance: Responsible AI | Inclusive | Resilient".
NABARD conducted Fireside chats, panel discussions on various themes. NABARD also conducted the 'National AgriInnovate Hackathon' to seek innovative, digital solutions to problem statements aligned to mandate of NABARD.
NABARD has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Rabo Partnerships B V on 25th September 2024 to promote digitalisation of rural financial services, enhance agricultural development and improve livelihood of especially the small and marginal farmers.
NABARD, in association with Department of Financial Services (DFS), organized Grameen Bharat Mahotsav 2025 from January 4-9, 2025, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Themed “Building a Resilient Rural India for a Viksit Bharat 2047,” the event was designed to accelerate rural development and showcase India’s journey toward becoming a developed nation by 2047. The event featured 180 exhibition stalls highlighting rural products, including Geographical Indication (GI)-certified goods, organic items, and tribal crafts. Besides, the event featured high level panel discussions on key themes, viz., “GI Products: Cultural Pride to Prosperity”, “Scaling Organic Agriculture to Tap Opportunities”, “Empowering Cooperatives for a Viksit Bharat”, “Promoting Rural Women Entrepreneurs”, “Tribal Treasures: Preserving Legacy and Driving Economy”, “Propelling Economic Growth for an Inclusive North-East” and “Financing Opportunities for Grameen Bharat”.
Centralised Account Aggregator platform proposed by SPPID, as a mechanism to onboard RCBs into Account Aggregator platform has received the approval from RBI.
A circular on EA Governance Framework has been issued on 19 June 2024.
An EA Corner has been created on NABNET to make the departments aware about the EA practices to be followed in NABARD.
EA Policy for NABARD was issued on 7th July 2025.
EA Policy Operational Guidelines were issued on 28th August 2025.
Sahakar Sarathi Private Limited (SSPL) is a strategic initiative of NABARD to empower Rural Cooperative Banks so that they can compete on par with other Commercial Banks. It will provide quality services through standardized processes at lower costs, by leveraging economies of scale and scope. The main objectives of Sahakar Sarathi include empowering RCBs to offer competitive banking services, while also enhancing their capital efficiency and streamlining operational processes. The authorised share capital of SSPL is Rs 1000 crore, to be equally contributed by NABARD, NCDC and Rural Cooperative Banks (RCBs) at 33.33% each. The company has been registered on 21 July 2025.

Work in progress:

Implementation of Pragati-1.0 initiatives.
Engaged in designing suitable digital banking products for Agri Value Chain financing.
Discussions with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) for identification of potential areas of collaboration.
Engagement with the World Bank for grounding a pilot on FPO Accelerator in collaboration with Maharashtra government through its SMART programme.
Digital Crop Loans-eKCC portal in Cooperative banks/RRBs.
To accelerate the dispensation of agri-credit especially among landless and tenant farmers, a mechanism to deliver purpose bound loans using the Programmable Central Bank Digital Currency (PCBDC) is being piloted in Andhra Pradesh & Odisha. This marks the first credit product using CBDC as a mode for disbursal of loans.
Upgradation/extension of CBS, CBS plus and related tech services to Rural Cooperative Banks through a centralised mechanism.
Expansion of Cyber Risk Insurance to more RCBs and RRBs. Currently 254 banks are availing the NABARD facilitated cyber insurance.
Implementation of Centralized Account Aggregator platform is in progress for the RCBs.

Contact Information

Shri Manikumar S.
Chief General Manager
4th Floor, ‘C’ Wing
C-24, ‘G’ Block
Bandra-Kurla Complex,
Bandra (East)
Mumbai-400051
Tel: (91) 022 -68120024
E-mail Address: sppid@nabard.org

Information under RTI – Section 4(1)(b)