About the scheme

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding from Government of India.
• Aim : To augment the income of the farmers by providing income support to all landholding farmers’ families across the country.
• The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land upto 2 hectares. Its ambit was later expanded w.e.f. 01.06.2019 to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their land holdings. 
• Under the Scheme an amount of Rs. 6000/- per year is transferred in three 4-monthly installments of Rs. 2000/- directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status.
• Eligibility : All landholder farmer’s families in the country are eligible for the PM-Kisan Scheme subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria. Farmers who do not own any land are not eligible for this scheme.
• Excluded from the scheme
  • Institutional land holders,
  • Farmer families holding constitutional posts,
  • Serving or retired officers and employees of state/central government as well as PSUs and government autonomous bodies.
  • Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last assessment year.
• Identification of beneficiaries: The responsibility of identifying the eligible beneficiary farmers and uploading their data on PM-KISAN portal lies entirely with the state governments.

Why in News?

• The Central government has released the 8th instalment of financial benefit under PM-KISAN to over 9 crore 50 lakh farmers in the country. 
• Under the 8th instalment, over 20 thousand crore rupees have been transferred directly into the accounts of the beneficiary farmers.
• Over 1 lakh 16 thousand crore rupees have been transferred directly into the accounts of the farmers under this scheme so far. Nearly 43,000 crore was released into the accounts of the farmers during the first wave of the corona pandemic.

Reference:

1. http://newsonair.com/News?title=8th-instalment-of-PM-Kisan-Samman-Nidhi-released-to-over-9.50-crore-farmers&id=416790