Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas celebrations and release the 15th instalment of the PM-KISAN scheme at Birsa College, Khunti, Jharkhand on Wednesday.

The Janjatiya Gaurav Divas is celebrated every year to recognize the tribals’ efforts in the preservation of cultural heritage and promotion of Indian values of national pride, valour, and hospitality.

The event will be broadcast by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), ICAR Institutes, State Agricultural Universities, PM Kisan Samriddhi Kendras, Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies, and Common Service Centers (CSCs) across the country.

In the 15th instalment, over eight crore farmers will receive an amount of more than Rs 18,000 crore, to be released by the Prime Minister by the click of a button on Wednesday.

The total amount transferred to the beneficiaries since the inception of the scheme is expected to cross well over Rs 2.80 lakh crore. This financial assistance will support farmers in meeting their agricultural and other incidental needs.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is one of the world’s largest Direct Benefit Transfer schemes. A flagship scheme of the Government of India, it exemplifies the continued commitment of the Government to initiate policy actions for an inclusive and productive agricultural sector.

It is a Central sector scheme launched on 24th February 2019 to supplement the financial needs of all land-holding farmers subject to certain exclusion criteria of higher income status.

Financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments, every four months, is transferred into the bank accounts of farmers’ families across the country through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. As of now, benefits amounting to more than Rs 2.61 lakh crores have been provided to more than 11 crore farmers across the nation.

For the release of the 15th instalment, eKYC and seeding of Aadhaar with active bank accounts are mandatory to ensure that the benefit is released to the genuine beneficiaries, directly into their Aadhaar linked bank accounts without any involvement of middlemen.

To facilitate the farmers in doing the eKYC in PM KISAN, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has developed a mobile application with the feature of facial authentication-based e-KYC, which can be used by the farmers to complete their own eKYC and can also assist 100 other farmers in their neighbourhood to complete e-KYC from the comfort of their homes.

This app is the first mobile app which uses facial authentication feature in any benefit transfer scheme of the Government of India. This Mobile App is very easy to use and is easily available for download on Google Play store.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has also launched a PM-KISAN AI Chatbot (Kisan e-Mitra), which will provide the farmers with a one-stop solution for their grievances related to the PM-KISAN scheme.

Integrated with Bhashini, the chatbot offers support in local languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Odia, Bengali and English through voice and text assistance. These technological solutions aim to address general queries and grievances raised by the beneficiaries promptly and effectively.

The Chatbot is enabling farmers in obtaining answers to all their scheme-related questions, providing them with accurate and timely information.

The release of the 15th instalment of the PM-KISAN scheme underlines the Government’s commitment to promoting agriculture, empowering farmers, and ensuring the sustainable development of the agricultural sector.