PM-KISAN is a central sector scheme launched on 24^th February, 2019 to supplement financial needs of land holding farmers. Financial benefit of Rs 6000/- per year in three equal installments, every four month is transferred into the bank accounts of farmers’ families across the country through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. The scheme was initially meant for small and marginal farmers (SMFs) having landholding upto 2 hectares but scope of the scheme was extended to cover all landholding farmers with effect from 01.06.2019.

Since, the inception of this scheme, there have been multiple set of technological & process advancements done in the scheme so that maximum number of beneficiaries can take the advantage of the same in an efficient way.

As on 22^nd February, 2022, benefits under PM Kisan scheme have been provided to about 11.78 Crore farmers and funds amounting to Rs1.82 lakh crore in various installments have been released to the eligible beneficiaries of this scheme across India. Out of which Rs. 1.29 lakh crore has been released during the current Covid 19 pandemic period.

Self-registration Mechanism: Process of Self-registration of beneficiaries has been made simple and easy through mobile app, PM KISAN portal and walk-ins via Common Service Centers in order to give the maximum benefit to the farmers.

Enhanced Recovery Mechanism: In case of ineligible beneficiary, recovery mechanism has been made very smooth and transparent which doesn’t require Demand Draft or physical cheque to be submitted by the state. The process includes auto transfer from state nodal department’s account to central government account which made this process very efficient and less time consuming.

Grievance Redressal& Helpdesk: In order to address the issues and problems faced by the beneficiaries, a holistic grievance redressal mechanism has been envisaged which involves setting up of a central Project Management Unit of PM KisanSammanNidhiYojana at the Centre which performs the overall coordination between all the stakeholders to streamline the processes. A centralized helpdesk has also been introduced in order to support the beneficiaries regarding any issues faced during the registration process or for any other query. Through this initiative about 11.34 lakh grievances have been received from farmers and more than 10.92 lakh grievances have been redressed by the concerned state authorities.

Physical Verification Module: In order to maintain the authenticity and validity of the scheme, a mandatory physical verification of 5% beneficiary every year is being done as per the provisions laid down in the scheme. With the help of Physical Verification Module, now the selection of beneficiary for physical verification has been totally automated and no manual intervention is required. A separate module has been introduced for the validation of 10% of the beneficiaries after the payment for last trimester on 14^th May 2021.

Income Tax verification: The beneficiary database in this scheme is being regularly validated with income tax payee database in order to have an audited and authenticated user base.

Demographic Aadhar authentication: To make this whole process more transparent and authenticated, Aadhar validation has been made compulsory. As of now 11.20 Crores beneficiaries data is Aadhar seeded in the scheme.

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APS/JK