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. This milestone event took place during the Asia and the Pacific Food Security Forum in Manila,
Philippines, marking the beginning of a series of significant engagements.
- 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.
Accordingly, as on 31 December 2024, Cyber Insurance Policies were issued to 193 rural banks (including 19 RRBs)
effective from 01 January 2025.
- 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.
- Operational Guidelines of EA Framework have been issued vide circular dated 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.
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 on a pilot basis 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 232 banks are availing the NABARD facilitated cyber insurance.
Contact Information
Shri Manikumar S.
Chief General Manager
4th Floor, ‘C’ Wing
C-24, ‘G’ Block
Bandra-Kurla Complex,
Bandra (East)
Mumbai-400051
Tel: 022 -68120024
E-mail Address: sppid@nabard.org
Information under RTI – Section 4(1)(b)