Just days before Diwali 2026, over 9.34 crore farmers across India received a direct financial boost — ₹18,690 crore credited to their bank accounts in a single transfer under the PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi scheme. BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Friday, 30 October 2026 took to X to acknowledge the release of the 24th instalment of the scheme, crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi with delivering 'prosperity as a gift to the annadata [food-provider]' ahead of the festival season.

What the 24th instalment means for India's farmers

Thakur's post, written in Hindi, described the transfer as 'samridhi ki saugat' — a 'gift of prosperity' — for the nation's farmers. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Modi for 'providing economic support to the annadata through this campaign.' The figures are significant: more than 9.34 crore beneficiary families received funds amounting to over ₹18,690 crore in a single-day direct benefit transfer, among the largest single-day agricultural welfare disbursements in the scheme's history.

The PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi was launched on 24 February 2019, announced in that year's interim Union Budget, as a central sector scheme to deliver ₹6,000 per year in direct income support to eligible landholding farmer families. The amount is disbursed in three equal instalments of ₹2,000 each, transferred directly to beneficiaries' bank accounts — bypassing intermediaries and cutting leakage. Since its inception, the scheme has become a centrepiece of the government's direct benefit transfer architecture for agriculture.

Festival timing and the politics of farm welfare

The timing of the transfer — days before Diwali — follows an established government pattern of scheduling PM-KISAN disbursements around major festivals and agricultural seasons, maximising both economic and political impact. Rural households typically experience elevated spending demand around Diwali, and liquidity support at this point in the calendar directly feeds into local consumption. The BJP has long positioned farmer welfare at the centre of its political identity, and Thakur's post — opening with 'Kisan ka samman, BJP ki pehchaan' ('Respect for farmers is BJP's identity') — underlines how the party frames these transfers as a core brand attribute.

Anurag Thakur, representing Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh in the Lok Sabha and a former Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs & Sports, is one of the party's more prominent faces on social media and a frequent amplifier of central government welfare messaging.

Scale of the scheme and what comes next

With 24 instalments now disbursed since the scheme's 2019 launch, PM-KISAN has become one of India's most widely-reaching direct welfare programmes. Its reach — touching over nine crore families — spans small and marginal farmers who form the backbone of India's agrarian economy. The scheme's next milestone to watch: whether the upcoming Union Budget proposes any revision to the annual outlay of ₹6,000 per family, a figure that farm advocacy groups have periodically pushed to increase in line with rising input costs.

For now, with funds already in the accounts of over nine crore families, the 24th instalment arrives exactly when rural India needed it most — right before the lights go on.