NABARD Grade B (Manager — Direct Recruitment) Syllabus 2026

The complete NABARD Grade B (Manager — Direct Recruitment) syllabus for 2026 — 7 sections and 72 topics in all, organised exactly as the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) prescribes. Use it as your revision checklist, then test yourself with a free NABARD Grade B (Manager — Direct Recruitment) mock below.

Economic & Social Issues (Phase I + Phase II Paper II — rural focus)11 topics

Nature of Indian Economy — sectoral composition, structural transformation, 1991 reforms and the post-2014 policy phase
Inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, employment generation (MGNREGA, NRLM, DAY-NULM, PMKVY skilling)
Globalisation, BoP, FDI in agriculture and food processing, India's trade agreements (CEPA, FTA pipeline)
Indian financial system — RBI, NABARD, SIDBI, EXIM, NHB, commercial banks, RRBs, cooperative banks, SFBs, Payment Banks, NBFCs, MFIs
Money supply, inflation (CPI, WPI), monetary policy framework with 4% +/- 2% inflation target, MPC composition and decisions
Population — Census 2011, demographic dividend, fertility/ageing/migration trends, deferred 2021 Census
Human Development — HDI, MPI, GDI, NITI Aayog SDG India Index, India's SDG progress
Education and Health — NEP 2020, Ayushman Bharat (PM-JAY + HWCs), TB Mukt Bharat target, NMC reforms
Social justice — DBT architecture, JAM trinity, PMJDY financial inclusion data, Aadhaar-linked benefit transfer
Sustainable Development Goals (17 SDGs, 169 targets) and India's voluntary national reviews
Indian budgeting — Union and State Budgets, fiscal/revenue/primary deficit, FRBM Act 2003, Finance Commission devolution and Article 280

Agriculture & Rural Development (Phase I + Phase II Paper II)14 topics

Indian Agriculture — share in GDP, cropping pattern (Kharif/Rabi/Zaid), 15 NARP agro-climatic zones, cropping intensity
Land reforms — zamindari abolition, tenancy reform, ceiling laws, consolidation of holdings, Bhoodan/Gramdan
Agricultural marketing — APMC Act, Model APLM Act 2017, eNAM portal, FPO ecosystem (10,000 FPO scheme)
Minimum Support Price — 23 crops, A2+FL vs C2 cost concepts, CACP role, PM-AASHA umbrella (PSS, PDPS, PPSS)
Crop insurance — PMFBY: farmer premium 2% kharif food crops, 1.5% rabi food crops, 5% commercial/horticulture; sum insured based on Scale of Finance
Kisan Credit Card (KCC) — interest subvention 2% (PRI) + 3% prompt repayment = effective 4% on loans up to Rs 3 lakh
Irrigation — AIBP, PMKSY (Har Khet Ko Pani, Per Drop More Crop)
Rural credit architecture — 3-tier short-term cooperative credit (StCB → DCCB → PACS); 2-tier long-term (SCARDB → PCARDB); RRBs; commercial banks
Priority Sector Lending — RBI 40% PSL target (75% for RRBs), 18% agriculture sub-target, 8% small/marginal farmers
Cooperative banking — multi-state cooperatives, Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act 2020 bringing UCBs under RBI, NABARD supervision of StCBs/DCCBs/RRBs
Soil and water — Soil Health Card, neem-coated urea, NMSA, RKVY
Animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries — Operation Flood, National Livestock Mission, PMMSY, Blue Revolution
Agricultural research and extension — ICAR network, KVKs, agricultural universities, ATMA scheme
Rural infrastructure — RIDF (NABARD-administered, PSL-shortfall corpus), PMGSY, PMAY-G, SVAMITVA

Development Economics (Phase II Paper III — DESFM Sub-stream 1)10 topics

Theories of economic growth — Harrod-Domar, Solow neoclassical, Lewis dual-sector, Rostow's stages, endogenous growth (Romer, Lucas)
Development indicators — HDI, MPI, GII, GDI, capability approach (Sen), human development vs economic growth
Poverty — measurement (head-count, poverty gap, squared gap), Tendulkar/Rangarajan committees, MPI, Indian poverty trends
Inequality — Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, Kuznets hypothesis, wealth and income inequality in India
Employment and unemployment — types, PLFS, Usual Status / CWS / CDS, India's youth unemployment challenge
Agricultural economics — production function, MSP economics, agricultural marketing reform debates, contract farming
Industrial economics — industrial policy evolution since 1948, IDR Act 1951, post-1991 delicensing, Make in India and PLI
International trade and finance — comparative advantage, terms of trade, BoP, exchange rate regimes
Indian Five Year Plans (1951-2017) — sectoral priorities, evolution from socialist planning to indicative planning to NITI Aayog
Rural development theory — basic needs approach, integrated rural development, participatory development, gender and development

Statistics (Phase II Paper III — DESFM Sub-stream 2)10 topics

Descriptive statistics — measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), dispersion (variance, SD, CV), skewness and kurtosis
Probability — classical and axiomatic, conditional probability, Bayes theorem, random variables, expectation and variance
Probability distributions — Binomial, Poisson, Normal, Exponential, Chi-square, t and F distributions
Sampling — simple random, stratified, systematic, cluster, multi-stage sampling; sampling distributions and standard error
Estimation — point estimation (method of moments, MLE), interval estimation, properties of estimators
Hypothesis testing — null and alternative, Type I and II errors, p-value, Z-test, t-test, chi-square test, F-test, ANOVA
Regression and correlation — simple and multiple linear regression, OLS, R-squared, residuals, multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity
Time-series analysis — trend, seasonality, cyclical and irregular components; ARIMA basics
Index numbers — Laspeyres, Paasche, Fisher, chain-base; WPI and CPI construction in India
Official statistics in India — NSO, MoSPI, Census, NSSO surveys, NAS national accounts, PLFS

Finance (Phase II Paper III — DESFM Sub-stream 3)11 topics

Financial system structure — money market, capital market, foreign exchange market; regulators (RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, IBBI)
Money market instruments — call money, T-bills, CDs, CPs, repo and reverse repo
Capital market — equity (primary IPO/FPO and secondary), debt (corporate bonds, G-secs), derivatives (futures, options, swaps)
Banking system — commercial banks, RRBs, cooperative banks, SFBs, Payments Banks, NBFCs (categories), MFIs
Banking regulation — Banking Regulation Act 1949, BR (Amendment) Act 2020, Basel III norms (CAR, CCB, LCR, NSFR)
Monetary policy — repo, reverse repo, CRR, SLR, MSF, OMO, MSS, FIT framework, MPC composition
Fiscal policy and public finance — Union Budget, FRBM Act 2003, fiscal/revenue/primary deficit, fiscal consolidation
Taxation — direct taxes (Income Tax Act, corporate tax), GST (CGST, SGST, IGST, compensation cess), GST Council
Corporate finance — capital structure (MM theorem, trade-off, pecking order), capital budgeting (NPV, IRR, payback), working capital management
NPA framework and IBC 2016 — SARFAESI Act, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, PCA framework, Bad Bank (NARCL)
Microfinance regulation — 2022 RBI MFI framework, FOIR-based household indebtedness cap, harmonised pricing norms

Management (Phase II Paper III — DESFM Sub-stream 4)10 topics

Management theories — Taylor's scientific management, Fayol's principles, Mayo's human relations, contingency approach, systems approach
Organisational structure — functional, divisional, matrix, networked; centralisation vs decentralisation
Leadership — trait, behavioural (Ohio State, Michigan), situational (Hersey-Blanchard, Fiedler), transformational vs transactional
Motivation theories — Maslow's hierarchy, Herzberg's two-factor, McGregor's X-Y, Vroom's expectancy, equity theory
Human Resource Management — recruitment, selection, training, performance appraisal, compensation, industrial relations
Strategic management — SWOT, PESTEL, Porter's 5 forces, value chain, BCG matrix, Ansoff matrix, blue ocean strategy
Communication — process, channels, barriers, formal and informal networks, organisational communication
Decision making — rational vs bounded rationality, programmed vs non-programmed, group decision techniques (Delphi, nominal group)
Organisational behaviour — perception, attitudes, learning, personality, group dynamics, conflict management
Corporate governance and ethics — Cadbury, OECD principles, Companies Act 2013 governance provisions, CSR (Section 135)

Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning, English, Computer Knowledge (Phase I)6 topics

Quantitative Aptitude — simplification, number series, quadratic equations, DI (tables, bar/line/pie/caselet), percentage, ratio-proportion, profit-loss, simple/compound interest, time-work, time-speed-distance, mensuration, probability
Reasoning — puzzles (linear, circular, floor, scheduling), seating arrangement, syllogisms, inequalities, blood relations, direction sense, input-output, coding-decoding, data sufficiency
English Language — reading comprehension (1-2 passages), cloze test, error spotting, sentence improvement, para-jumbles, fillers, word usage, idioms/phrases
Computer Knowledge — generations, hardware, OS basics, MS Office, networking (LAN/WAN, OSI/TCP-IP), internet/email, DBMS basics, cyber security
General Awareness — banking and financial awareness (last 6-8 months), national and international current affairs, sports, awards, summits, books, deaths, appointments
Decision Making (Phase I, 10 marks) — situational judgement, managerial scenarios

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