Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday, June 19, 2026, that the 23rd instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme will be released from Tarakeswar in West Bengal, benefiting farmer families across the country. The announcement also flagged the rollout of additional central government schemes related to agriculture at the same event.

Context

In his post on X, Prime Minister Modi described it as 'a matter of immense joy' that the instalment release would be accompanied by the launch of key central government agriculture schemes. The event is set to be held at Tarakeswar, a temple town in Hooghly district, West Bengal, which has periodically served as a venue for central scheme launches in eastern India.

PM-KISAN provides ₹6,000 per year in direct income support to landholding farmer families, disbursed in three equal instalments of ₹2,000 each directly into beneficiaries' bank accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism.

Policy Backdrop

PM-KISAN was launched in February 2019 as a flagship direct benefit transfer scheme targeting small and marginal farmers across India. Since its inception, successive instalments have been released periodically, with the central government using these events to reaffirm its commitment to agricultural welfare.

West Bengal had initially been among the states that delayed implementation of PM-KISAN, making the choice of Tarakeswar as the release venue politically significant. The state has remained a contested ground for central scheme outreach, given the historically strained relationship between the state government and the central administration on welfare delivery.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of the 23rd instalment are landholding farmer families across India, particularly small and marginal cultivators who depend on the annual ₹6,000 support to partially offset input costs such as seeds, fertilisers, and irrigation. The scheme has consistently reached crores of farmer households since its launch.

The simultaneous rollout of additional central agriculture schemes signals a broader policy push at the event, though the specific names and details of the new schemes announced alongside were not fully disclosed in the post. Farmers in West Bengal stand to receive particular attention given the choice of venue, with the event likely to draw significant participation from the state's rural communities.

What's Next

The Tarakeswar event is expected to serve as a platform for the central government to outline its near-term agricultural agenda, with the 23rd PM-KISAN instalment release as the centrepiece. Observers will watch for announcements related to crop insurance, credit access, or new direct benefit schemes that may follow from this rollout.

The next cycle of PM-KISAN disbursements and any new agriculture scheme guidelines are also anticipated in the context of the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, where agricultural policy often receives renewed legislative attention.