In a major boost to agrarian financial security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially released the highly anticipated 23rd installment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme. During a special event held at Tarakeswar in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, the Prime Minister launched the fund transfer with the press of a button. The event, celebrated as ‘PM Kisan Utsav Divas,’ enabled the electronic transfer of funds directly into the bank accounts of eligible farmers via the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism, ensuring transparency and eliminating middleman interventions.
The latest rollout has successfully disbursed more than ₹18,880 crore to over 9.44 crore beneficiary farmer families across the country. Under this installment, each eligible farmer received a direct cash assistance of ₹2,000 to manage immediate seasonal sowing and cultivation expenses. According to official data, the state-wise distribution included ₹907 crore allocated to 45.35 lakh farmers in West Bengal and ₹1,025 crore mended for 51.28 lakh farmer families in Gujarat. Notably, out of the total nationwide pool of beneficiaries, over 2.18 crore are women farmers.
Launched in February 2019 to support small and marginal landholding farmers, the PM-Kisan scheme provides an annual financial benefit of ₹6,000, distributed in three equal operational installments of ₹2,000 every four months. With the successful execution of this 23rd cycle, the central government has distributed over ₹4.46 lakh crore to Indian farmers since the scheme’s inception. Officials have reminded beneficiaries to visit the official portal at pmkisan.gov.in under the ‘Farmers Corner’ section to check their status, while emphasizing that completing the mandatory e-KYC protocol remains essential for uninterrupted future disbursements.
