NABARD Grade A & B | BIDYASAGAR CLASSES

About NABARD Grade A & B

NABARD is a development finance institution and its history can be traced back to three decades ago when it replaced Agriculture Credit Department (ACD) and Rural Planning and Credit Cell (RPCC) of RBI as an apex development bank in India solely dedicated to operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas.

It also supervises Regional Rural Banks and Rural Cooperative banks. Hence, being an offspring of Reserve Bank of India, it shares the work culture, ethos and development orientation to its parent organization.

Job Profile of NABARDGrade A & B

Job Profile of NABARD Grade A (Assistant Manager)

The post of Assistant Manager is the lowest one in the hierarchy of managerial posts.
The probation period is of 2 years, which can be further extended for a maximum of 1 year at the discretion of the bank.
Since there is no specified work profile of an Assistant Manager he has to do a lot of multitasking.
Any work assigned by Chief General Manager of RO is to be carried out by him.
An Assistant Manager has to work on various policies and programmes mandated by Central/State Governments related to Agriculture and Rural Development. Although one is liable to be posted anywhere in India the postings are generally limited to state capitals only. Moreover, as per the HR policy home state postings are not allowed.

Job Profile of NABARD Grade B (Manager)

The post of Manager is the next post in the hierarchy to Assistant Manager.
A manager is entrusted with the responsibilities to maintain customer relationships, monitor the accounting procedures, approve loans, enable smooth functioning of the office, coordination with various departments and facilitation of interdepartmental assignments.

NABARD Grade A & B Career Growth and Promotion

As far as promotions are concerned, one gets promoted only after going through departmental exams and interviews. But as these both are managerial posts further promotions definitely bring in considerable prestige and pay hike. The hierarchy of posts right from the post of Assistant Manager is as follows

Assistant Manager
Manager
Assistant General Manager
Deputy General Manager
General Manager
Chief General Manager
Executive Director
Director

The next designation after Manager is that of Assistant General Manager which is a highly prestigious post, though it comes with its own set of challenges. An AGM can be posted as a District Development Manager (DDM) in a rural district that works from a residence cum office. It is a one-man office and DDM is entrusted with the responsibility for encouraging rural development activities and monitoring their progress.

NABARD Grade A & B Selection Process

Selection Process of NABARD Grade A (Assistant Manager)

NABARD recruits Assistant Managers (Grade A) through an online selection process. The exam is conducted in three Phases.

Phase-I (Preliminary Examination) – It is an online objective exam carrying 200 marks. It is qualifying in nature.

Phase-II (Main Examination) – It is also an online exam but a mix of MCQ and Descriptive Pattern Namely Paper I and Paper II.

Phase-III (Interview) – Candidates scoring remarkably high in the Main examination are shortlisted for Interview.

Selection Process of NABARD Grade B (Manager)

Phase-I (Preliminary Examination)- Same pattern as Assistant Manager Exam.

Phase-II (Main Examination)- It consists of three papers. The pattern of Paper I and Paper II is almost similar to Assistant Manager (Grade A). Paper III tests the candidate’s command on Development Economics, Statistics, Finance& Management.

Considering the overall job profile and attached remunerations we can conclude that the posts of Assistant Manager and Manager at NABARD offer bright career prospects to the candidates. Due to the relatively low pressure at NABARD, one can also maintain his work-life balance and even continue his further studies and aspire for higher posts. And the most important thing is that as an officer at NABARD one contributes in bringing prosperity in the society and giving a push to rural India’s aspirations.

NABARD Grade A & B Syllabus & Exam Pattern (Prelims/Mains)

A clear idea of the latest exam pattern and detailed syllabus of NABARD Grade A is important for the better preparation of this exam. National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development has released the official . In this post, we have shared the NABARD Grade A syllabus & exam pattern for NABARD Assistant Manager Prelims & Mains exam. As per the official notification, there is no major change in the pattern of NABARD GRADE Aexam. The selection process of NABARD Grade A exam will comprise of following stages:

Phase I – Preliminary Exam: Online Objective Test
2. Phase II – Main Exam: Online Objective & Online Descriptive Test
3. Phase III – Interview

Note: We have also covered the exam pattern and syllabus of NABARD Grade B Exam at the end of this post.

NABARD Grade A Exam Pattern

Exam Pattern of NABARD Grade A Prelims

Online Preliminary Exam is qualifying in nature and is meant to serve as a screening test. Candidates who qualify and rank sufficiently high in Preliminary Exam, well above the cutoff, shall be called for appearing in the Main Examination. So, the marks secured in Phase I – Online preliminary examination will not be counted for final selection.

The Exam Pattern for NABARD Grade A Exam 2018 (Phase I) is as follows –

S. No.	Name of Test	Number of Questions	Maximum Marks	Total Time
1.	Reasoning Ability	20	20	Composite time of 120 minutes (2 hours)
2.	English Language	40	40
3.	Computer Knowledge	20	20
4.	General Awareness	20	20
5.	Quantitative Aptitude	20	20
6.	Economic & Social Issues (with focus on Rural India)	40	40
7.	Agriculture & Rural Development (with focus on Rural India)	40	40
	Total	200	200

Note: The Prelims exam pattern is same for NABARD Grade B exam as well!

Exam Pattern of NABARD Grade A Mains Exam

S. No.	Exam	Post	Name of Test	Maximum Marks	Total Time
1.	Phase I (Descriptive Test)	Common to all	General English Essay writing: 40 Marks Precis: 20 Marks Questions on the Precis Para: 20 Marks Report/ Letter Writing: 20 Marks	100	90 minutes
2.	Phase II	For ‘General’ post	Economic & Social Issues and Agriculture & Rural Development (with focus on Rural India)	100	90 minutes
	Phase II	For posts including following – Economics, Agriculture, Agriculture Engineering, Plantation and Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Food Processing, Forestry, Environmental Engineering, Water Resource Development & Management, Social Work, Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary	Paper on related discipline	100	90 minutes

NABARD Grade ‘B’ Mains Exam Pattern

S. No.	Exam	Name of Test	Maximum Marks	Total Time
1.	Phase I	General English (Descriptive Test)	100	90 minutes
2.	Phase II	Economic and Social Issues and Agri. and Rural Development (with focus on Rural India) for General Posts and Agriculture for candidates applying for Manager (RDBS) Agriculture Post	100	90 minutes
3.	Phase III	Development Economics, Statistics, Finance & Management	100	90 minutes

NABARD Syllabus for Grade A & B

We will now have a look at the detailed syllabus of NABARD Grade A Exam for the preliminary as well as mains phase separately.

Syllabus of NABARD Grade A & B Preliminary Exam (Phase I)

Name of Section	Topics asked
Reasoning Ability	Puzzles (Seating arrangement, linear seating arrangement, floor based) Syllogism Data sufficiency Statement based questions (Verbal reasoning) Inequality Miscellaneous Questions Input-Output Blood relations etc.
Quantitative Aptitude	Data Interpretation Quadratic Equations Number Series Simplification/ Approximation Data Sufficiency Miscellaneous Arithmetic Questions The miscellaneous questions have questions from profit and loss, age, average, simple and compound interest, boat and stream, time and work, area.
English Language	Reading Comprehension Cloze test Sentence improvement Spotting the errors Fill in the blanks Sentence rearrangement.
General Awareness	The questions in this test will be from Current Affairs and Banking and Economy, Insurance. In the current affairs, questions can be asked from recent appointments, awards, and honors, sports, new schemes, national and international news, latest developments in science and technology.
Computer Knowledge	This section covers topics from various topics like Networking, Input-output devices, DBMS, MS Office, Internet, History of computer & generations, Shortcuts.

Syllabus of NABARD Grade A & B Mains Exam (Phase II)

The phase II of the Exam consists of Online Objective test & Online Descriptive Test.

Paper I – English Writing

This will comprise of Essay, Précis writing, Comprehension, Report writing, Paragraph writing and Business/Office Correspondence.

Paper II – Economic and Social Issues

(a) Economic & Social Issues:

Nature of Indian Economy	Structural and Institutional features Economic Underdevelopment Opening up the Indian Economy Globalisation Economic Reforms in India Privatisation.
Inflation	Trends in Inflation & their Impact on National Economy and Individual Income.
Poverty Alleviation and Employment Generation in India	Rural and Urban Measurement of Poverty Poverty Alleviation Programmes of the Government.
Population Trends	Population Growth and Economic Development Population Policy in India.
Agriculture	Characteristics / Status Technical and Institutional changes in Indian Agriculture Agricultural performance Issues in Food Security in India Non Institutional and Institutional Agencies in rural credit.
Industry	Industrial and Labour Policy Industrial performance Regional Imbalance in India’s Industrial Development Public Sector Enterprises.
Rural banking and financial institutions in India	Reforms in Banking/ Financial sector.
Globalisation of Economy	Role of International Funding Institutions IMF & World Bank WTO Regional Economic Co-operation.
Social Structure in India	Multiculturalism Demographic trends Urbanisation and Migration Gender Issues Joint family system Social Infrastructure Education Health and Environment.
Education	Status & System of Education Socio-Economic Problems associated with Illiteracy Educational relevance and educational wastage Educational Policy for India.
Social Justice	Problems of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes Socio-economic programmes for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other backward classes.
Positive Discrimination in favor of the underprivileged	Social Movements Indian Political Systems Human Development
Current Economic & Social Issues.

(b) Agriculture & Rural Development:

Agriculture	Definition, meaning and its branches Agronomy: Definition, meaning, and scope of agronomy. Classification of field crops. Factors affecting on crop production Agro Climatic Zones Cropping Systems: Definition and types of cropping systems. Problems of dry land – Seed production, seed processing, seed village Meteorology: weather parameters, crop-weather advisory Precision Farming System of Crop Intensification Organic farming
Soil and Water Conservation	Major soil types Soil fertility Fertilisers Soil erosion Soil conservation Watershed management
Water Resource	Irrigation Management Types of irrigation Sources of irrigation Crop-water requirement Command area development Water conservation techniques Micro-irrigation Irrigation pumps Major, medium and minor irrigation.
Farm and Agri Engineering	Farm Machinery and Power Sources of power on the farm- human, animal, mechanical, electrical, wind, solar and biomass, biofuels Water harvesting structures Farm Ponds Agro Processing Controlled and modified storage, perishable food storage, godowns, bins and grain silos.
Plantation & Horticulture	Definition, meaning, and its branches Agronomic practices and production technology of various plantation and horticulture crops Post-harvest management, value and supply chain management of Plantation and Horticulture crops.
Animal Husbandry	Farm animals and their role in Indian economy Animal husbandry methods in India Common terms pertaining to different species of livestock Utility classification of breeds of cattle. Introduction to common feeds and fodders, their classification and utility. Introduction to the poultry industry in India (past, present and future status) Common terms pertaining to poultry production and management The concept of mixed farming and its relevance to socio-economic conditions of farmers in India Complimentary and obligatory nature of livestock and poultry production with that of agricultural farming.
Fisheries	Fisheries resources Management and exploitation – freshwater, brackish water and marine Aquaculture- Inland and marine Biotechnology Post-harvest technology Importance of fisheries in India Common terms pertaining to fish production.
Forestry	Basic concepts of Forest and Forestry Principles of silviculture, forest mensuration, forest management and forest economics Concepts of social forestry, agroforestry, joint forest management Forest policy and legislation in India, India State of Forest Report 2015 Recent developments under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Agriculture Extensions	Its importance and role, methods of evaluation of extension programmes Role of KrishiVigyan Kendra’s (KVK) in the dissemination of Agricultural technologies.
Ecology and Climate Change	Ecology and its relevance to man, natural resources, their sustainable management, and conservation Causes of climate change, Green House Gases (GHG), major GHG emitting countries, climate analysis Distinguish between adaptation and mitigation Climate change impact to agriculture and rural livelihoods Carbon credit IPCC, UNFCCC, CoP meetings Funding mechanisms for climate change projects Initiatives by Govt of India, NAPCC, SAPCC, INDC.
Present Scenario of Indian Agriculture and Allied activities	Recent trends Major challenges in agriculture measures to enhance Viability of agriculture Factors of Production in agriculture Agricultural Finance and Marketing Impact of Globalization on Indian Agriculture and issues of Food Security Concept and Types of Farm Management.
Rural Development	Concept of Rural Area Structure of the Indian Rural Economy Importance and role of the rural sector in India Economic, Social and Demographic Characteristics of the Indian rural economy Causes of Rural Backwardness. Rural population in India Occupational structure Farmers, Agricultural Laborers, Artisans, Handicrafts, Traders, Forest dwellers/tribes and others in rural India Trends of change in rural population and rural workforce Problems and conditions of rural labor Issues and challenges in Hand-looms Panchayati Raj Institutions – Functions and Working. MGNREGA, NRLM – Aajeevika, Rural Drinking water Programmes, Swachh Bharat, Rural Housing, PURA and other rural development programmes.

For Phase III of NABARD Grade B Exam (Development Economics, Statistics, Finance & Management) –

Development Economics	Measures of development Economic Development Models Role of subsidies Importance of savings and investment Importance of agriculture Terms of trade in agriculture Development issues in India.
Statistics	Basic statistical concepts Summarizing of data Frequency distribution Measures of Central Tendency Relative dispersion, Elementary Probability Relative Frequency Approach Sampling, Axiomatic Approach Analysis of frequency distribution Correlation, Regression, Sampling Methods Time Series Analysis.
Finance	Regulation of Banks & Financial Institutions Banking and Financial Institutions in India Financial system- features, characteristics, and issues Microfinance, its significance, and importance Union Budget; Project finance, Infrastructure financing, Sources of capital, Development finance Concept of project cycle management Private and Social Cost-Benefit significance of development finance Financial Inclusion
Management	Its nature and scope The Management Processes Planning, Organisation, Staffing, Directing and Controlling The Role of a Manager in an Organisation. Leadership Human Resource Development Communication