The 24th instalment of PM-KISAN transferred more than ₹18,690 crore directly to over 9.34 crore eligible farmer families. With this payment, cumulative transfers under the scheme have crossed ₹4.64 lakh crore. PM-KISAN provides ₹6,000 a year in three instalments to eligible farmer families through direct benefit transfer.
The scheme illustrates the administrative strengths of DBT: a nationally standardised entitlement can be credited directly to verified beneficiary accounts while reducing layers of payment intermediation. At the same time, income support cannot by itself address crop-price volatility, irrigation gaps, farm-size constraints, input costs or climate risk.
For civil-services preparation, PM-KISAN should be distinguished from crop insurance and procurement. It is an income-support instrument. Its policy value should therefore be assessed alongside beneficiary identification, land-record quality, exclusion risks, fiscal cost and the broader package of agricultural productivity and risk-management measures.