NABARD Grade A
Recruits Assistant Managers (Grade A officers) in Rural Development Banking Service, Legal, Protocol & Security and specialist disciplines for NABARD, India's apex development bank for agriculture and rural credit.
Eligibility
General (Rural Development Banking Service) posts need a bachelor's degree with 60% (55% for SC/ST/PwBD), or a postgraduate degree with 55%, or an MBA/PGDM or CA/CS/ICWA qualification; specialist posts need degrees in the relevant discipline (agriculture, finance, IT, law and so on). Age 21–30 years, counted as on the first of the notification month, with standard relaxations. There is no attempt limit.
Age limit: 21–30 years (relaxation as per NABARD norms)
Exam pattern
Phase I is an online objective test of 200 questions in 120 minutes. Reasoning, English, Computer Knowledge, Quantitative Aptitude and Decision Making are qualifying only, while General Awareness, Economic & Social Issues and Agriculture & Rural Development (rural focus) count for shortlisting. Phase II has a descriptive General English paper (100 marks) and a paper on Economic & Social Issues and Agriculture & Rural Development (100 marks); specialists take a discipline-specific paper instead. Negative marking is 0.25 of the marks per wrong objective answer. Final merit combines Phase II with a 50-mark interview.
Syllabus at a glance
Agriculture and Rural Development (agronomy, soil and water conservation, animal husbandry, fisheries, agricultural extension, rural development programmes, cooperation and rural credit), Economic & Social Issues (Indian economy, poverty, employment, inclusive growth, social sectors) with a rural focus, General Awareness and current affairs, plus qualifying aptitude sections and descriptive English (essay, précis, report and letter writing).
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| NABARD Grade A 2026 notification and registration | Oct–Dec 2026 (expected; not released as of 19 October 2026) | expected |
| Phase I | Dec 2026–Jan 2027 (expected, about 6–8 weeks after notification) | expected |
| Phase II | Jan–Feb 2027 (expected) | expected |
| Interviews and final result | Mar–May 2027 (expected) | expected |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- Agriculture at a Glance – R.K. Sharma
- Rural Development: Principles, Policies and Management – Katar Singh
- Indian Economy – Ramesh Singh
- Indian Economy – Datt & Sundharam (Gaurav Datt and Ashwani Mahajan)
- Objective General English – S.P. Bakshi (Arihant)
How toppers play it
- Only General Awareness, Economic & Social Issues and Agriculture & Rural Development decide Phase I merit, so give them about 70% of your study time while just clearing the qualifying sections.
- Agriculture & Rural Development carries the most weight; non-agriculture graduates should start early with basics (crops, soils, irrigation, livestock) before moving on to schemes.
- Track agricultural schemes and data (PM-KISAN, crop insurance, minimum support prices, agricultural credit targets) from the Budget, Economic Survey and Press Information Bureau.
- Phase II is descriptive; practise writing 150–300-word answers with data points and examples, and use the 2–3 week gap between phases for full answer-writing practice.
- The notification date has varied from July to November in recent years; keep preparing continuously rather than waiting for the notice.