NABARD Grade A
Recruits Assistant Managers (Grade A) into NABARD's Rural Development Banking Service (RDBS) and specialist streams — an officer role in India's apex rural-development bank.
Eligibility
For the Generalist (RDBS) stream: a bachelor's degree in any discipline with at least 60% marks (55% for SC/ST/PwBD), or a postgraduate degree meeting similar norms. Specialist streams need discipline-specific degrees (agriculture, economics, finance, law, etc.). Age 21-30 years with standard relaxations.
Age limit: 21-30 years (relaxations for reserved categories)
Exam pattern
Three phases. Phase I (prelims): 200 questions, 200 marks, 120 minutes across eight sections — English, Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, General Awareness, Computer Knowledge, Decision Making, plus the merit-deciding Economic & Social Issues (ESI) and Agriculture & Rural Development (ARD) sections; only ESI, ARD and Decision Making count towards shortlisting, the rest are qualifying. Phase II (mains): Paper I — descriptive General English (100 marks, typed); Paper II — ESI and ARD, half objective and half descriptive (100 marks). Interview of 50 marks; 0.25 negative marking applies to objective questions.
Syllabus at a glance
The exam pivots on Economic & Social Issues (growth, poverty, rural employment, inclusion) and Agriculture & Rural Development — agronomy basics, animal husbandry, rural credit, cooperative banking, government schemes such as PM-KISAN, and NABARD's own functions and initiatives. Standard bank-exam aptitude sections appear in prelims only as qualifying hurdles.
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Notification (2026-27 cycle) | Sep-Nov 2026 (last cycle was notified 8 Nov 2025) | expected |
| Phase I (prelims) | Dec 2026 | expected |
| Phase II (mains) | Jan-Feb 2027 | expected |
| Interviews and final result | Mar-Apr 2027 | tba |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- Indian Economy — Ramesh Singh (McGraw Hill)
- Handbook of Agriculture — ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
- The Indian Financial System — Bharati V. Pathak (Pearson)
- Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations — R.S. Aggarwal
- A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning — R.S. Aggarwal
How toppers play it
- Only ESI, ARD and Decision Making decide the prelims merit list — clear the qualifying aptitude sections economically and pour preparation time into agriculture and rural-economy content.
- Build a scheme bank: PM-KISAN, e-NAM, KCC, SHG-Bank linkage and NABARD's own programmes (watershed development, RIDF) are asked every cycle with current figures.
- Read NABARD's latest annual report summary — questions on NABARD's functions, subsidiaries and refinance operations come straight from it.
- Practise typed descriptive answers for Phase II: 10-15 line responses with one data point, one scheme and one conclusion each.
- Agriculture graduates should weigh specialist-stream vacancies against the Generalist stream, where competition is broader but seats are more numerous.