NABARD Grade B Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

Phase 1: 200 questions, 200 marks, 120 minutes

The five qualifying tests, 100 marks between them, only have to be passed. Shortlisting is on the other 100: General Awareness, Economic and Social Issues, and Agriculture and Rural Development. Time is composite, and the paper is bilingual except the English test.

Phase 2: three papers, 300 marks

Descriptive answers are typed. Papers II and III can be answered in English or Hindi (Remington and Inscript keyboards); Paper I is English.

Interview: 75 marks

Grade A's interview carries 50. Final ranking is Phase 2 plus interview; Phase 1 only gets you through.

Negative marking

A quarter of the marks for the question is deducted for each wrong answer, in both Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Calling ratios

• 1:25 for the Main Examination, so at most 25 candidates per vacancy.
• 1:3 for the interview.

NABARD can reduce either. Against seven posts that means roughly 175 candidates at the mains and about 21 at interview.

Answer-pattern analysis

NABARD compares mains responses across candidates for patterns of similarity in right and wrong answers, and can cancel the candidature of anyone whose score it concludes is not genuine.

NABARD calls the syllabus indicative, not exhaustive. Anything within a subject can be asked, and expect questions on current developments even where the topic isn't listed.

Paper I: English (online descriptive)

Essay, precis writing, comprehension, and business or office correspondence.

Paper II: Economic and Social Issues

Nature of the Indian economy: structural and institutional features; economic underdevelopment; opening up the Indian economy; globalisation; economic reforms in India; privatisation. Inflation: trends and their impact on the national economy and individual income. Employment generation, rural and urban. Measurement of poverty; poverty alleviation programmes. Population trends, population growth and economic development, population policy. Agriculture: characteristics and status; technical and institutional change in Indian agriculture; agricultural performance; food security; non-institutional and institutional agencies in rural credit. Industry: industrial and labour policy; industrial performance; regional imbalance in industrial development; public sector enterprises. Rural banking and financial institutions; reforms in the banking and financial sector. Globalisation of the economy; the 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; the joint family system; social infrastructure (education, health and environment). Education: status and system; socio-economic problems of illiteracy; educational relevance and wastage; educational policy. Social justice: problems of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and the programmes for them and for other backward classes; positive discrimination; social movements; Indian political systems; human development. Current economic and social issues.

Paper II: Agriculture and Rural Development

Agriculture: definition, meaning and branches. Agronomy: definition, meaning and scope; classification of field crops; factors affecting crop production; agro-climatic zones. Cropping systems: definition and types. Problems of dryland agriculture. Seed production, seed processing, the seed village. Meteorology: weather parameters, crop-weather advisory. Precision farming and related systems, together with the rural development component of the paper.

The published syllabus carries on at this level of detail across the agricultural sciences and rural development. Work from the one printed in your own cycle's advertisement.

Paper III: Development Economics, Statistics, Finance and Management

Only in Grade B. Four fields in one 100-mark paper, half objective and half descriptive: development economics, statistics, finance and management. Neither Grade A nor the Phase 1 syllabus covers any of it.

Qualification: four levels, not one

For Manager (RDBS), General: a post-graduate degree in any subject from a recognised university with at least 60% in aggregate (SC and PwBD 55%).

The 60% runs all the way down. You need 60% or equivalent at 10th, 12th, graduation and post-graduation, or at 10th, 12th, graduation, PG and a professional degree (CA, CS, ICWA), or at 10th, 12th, graduation, PG and a PhD.

A weak Class 10 or Class 12 result shuts you out for good, however strong everything after it. Most banking recruitment doesn't look that far back.

Experience: mandatory

At least three years (SC and PwBD: two) in banking, finance, agriculture and allied, or rural development. It counts only after the post-graduate degree; work done before or during the PG doesn't.

Age

25 to 32 years on the cut-off date. Relaxation: 3 years for OBC; 5 years for SC, for ex-servicemen meeting the service conditions, and for children and family members of victims of the 1984 riots. Maximum for PwBD: 10 years (General), 13 (OBC), 15 (SC/ST). No cumulative relaxation beyond that.

CGPA conversion

If your university defines a conversion to percentage, that's used. If not, NABARD uses its own 10-point scale: 6.75 = 60%, 6.25 = 55%, 5.75 = 50%, 5.25 = 45%, over the whole course, normalised first if the scale isn't out of 10.

Other rules

• PwBD candidates applying against unreserved posts get no relaxation in the qualifying percentage, though they do get age and fee relaxation.
• The final result of the qualifying degree must be declared on or before the cut-off date. A later result makes you ineligible.

1. Phase 1, Preliminary. 200 marks, half qualifying and half merit. Shortlisting on the merit half only, at up to 1:25 of the vacancies.
2. Phase 2, Main. Three papers, 300 marks. Those at or above the cut-off go forward at up to 1:3 for interview.
3. Interview, 75 marks.

Final selection is on Phase 2 plus the interview. Phase 1 marks don't enter the result.

Ties

1. higher marks in the Main Examination;
2. higher qualification, or with similar qualifications, higher marks in graduation;
3. the older candidate.

Cut-offs applied twice

In both phases NABARD can set cut-offs on each test and again on the total. A good aggregate doesn't save you if one paper falls below its own bar.

From the 2021-22 advertisement. These move with pay revisions and DA.

Plus Dearness Allowance, Local Compensatory Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Grade Allowance.

Perquisites

Bank accommodation subject to availability; reimbursement of vehicle maintenance for official use, newspaper, telephone, book grant and a furnishing allowance; free dispensary and reimbursement of OPD and hospitalisation; interest-free festival advance; leave travel concession; and concessional loans for housing, car, children's education, consumer articles and a personal computer.

Service conditions

• New Pension Scheme, plus gratuity and an optional group term insurance plan.
• Two years' probation, extendable by up to one more.
• Liable to be posted anywhere in India.

Apply online only, through nabard.org.

Fee in the 2021-22 advertisement

Plus GST, and non-refundable. NABARD staff pay the same and are reimbursed on producing the receipt; staff status is checked at interview.

Scans you need

• Photograph, 4.5 cm x 3.5 cm;
• Signature in black ink. Capital letters are not accepted.
• Left thumb impression on white paper in black or blue ink, not smudged (right thumb if there is no left);
• a handwritten declaration in black ink, in your own hand and in English only.

The declaration reads: "I ... hereby declare that all the information submitted by me in the application form is correct, true and valid. I will present the supporting documents as and when required."

A declaration written by someone else, or in another language, makes the application invalid. Visually impaired candidates who can't write may have it typed and put their left thumb impression below it.

If you apply more than once, only the last application counts and the fee on the others is forfeited. Complaints go through the Candidate Grievance Lodging and Redressal Mechanism, with the post named in the subject line.

Both phases are online. Phase 1 is objective and in Hindi and English, except the English Language test.

In Phase 2 you type your descriptive answers: 200 of the 300 marks. Papers II and III can be in English or Hindi, with Remington and Inscript layouts for Hindi; Paper I is in English.

Grade B isn't held every year. Advertisements come irregularly, for a few posts at a time, on the Career Notices page of nabard.org.

The 2021-22 cycle ran like this:

Vacancies

That advertisement had seven posts for Manager (RDBS) General: 3 UR, 1 SC, 2 OBC, 1 EWS, with one PwBD-LD vacancy on horizontal reservation. NABARD can raise or cut the count, or cancel the recruitment.

Call letters for both phases and the interview come through nabard.org and your registered email. The mains date is announced on the website after Phase 1.

NABARD can move exam dates, and a candidate who won't accept the change loses candidature for that exam. Keep your registered email and phone working through the cycle.

Results for each phase and the final select list are published on nabard.org.

Final ranking is on Phase 2 (300 marks) plus the interview (75 marks). Phase 1 marks are not carried forward.

Selected candidates join on two years' probation, extendable by up to a year.

NABARD publishes no cut-off marks for Grade B. Results and select lists go up on the Career Notices page without them.

The mechanism is in the advertisement: cut-offs on each test and on the total, Phase 1 shortlisting on the merit half only, and calling ratios of up to 1:25 for the mains and 1:3 for interview. With a handful of vacancies, the effective bar moves with each advertisement's post count.

1. Check the 60% rule at all four levels first. 10th, 12th, graduation and PG. Nothing you do later makes up for a school result below the bar.
2. Count experience from the PG, not your first job.
3. Spend the new time on Paper III. If you're coming from a Grade A attempt, this is 100 marks you haven't prepared for, half of it descriptive.
4. Don't over-invest in Phase 1's qualifying half. Reasoning, English, Computer Knowledge, Quantitative Aptitude and Decision Making only have to be passed. Shortlisting is on the other 100 marks.
5. Practise typing long answers, on Remington or Inscript if you'll write in Hindi.
6. Don't write off any paper. Per-test cut-offs mean one weak paper can end the attempt on its own.
7. Guess carefully. A quarter mark goes for each wrong answer in both phases.
8. Take the interview seriously. 75 marks against a 300-mark mains, in a field of about three per post.
9. Get the scans right. A signature in capitals, a smudged thumb, or a declaration not in your own hand and in English invalidates the form.

NABARD: nabard.org

Career notices, where every Grade B advertisement appears: nabard.org career notices

2021-22 advertisement (PDF): Recruitment to the post of Manager in Grade 'B' (RDBS), Advertisement No. 3/Grade B/2021-22

Take vacancy counts, dates, fees and cut-off dates from your own cycle's advertisement. The structure has stayed the same; the numbers haven't.

How is Grade B different from Grade A?

Grade B needs a PG degree and three years' experience, and the age band is 25 to 32. Phase 2 is three papers for 300 marks instead of two for 200, and the interview is worth 75 instead of 50.

Can a fresh graduate apply?

No. A PG degree and three years' post-PG experience are both required.

Do I really need 60% at every level?

Yes: 10th, 12th, graduation and PG. SC and PwBD applicants need 55% at PG.

When does my experience start counting?

After the PG degree. Work before or during it doesn't count.

Do Phase 1 marks count towards the final result?

No. Final ranking is Phase 2 plus the interview.

Is there negative marking?

Yes, a quarter of the marks for the question, in both phases.

Can I write the mains in Hindi?

Papers II and III, yes. Paper I is General English.

How many vacancies are there?

Very few. The 2021-22 advertisement had seven.

What is the pay?

A starting basic of Rs 35,150 in the 2021-22 advertisement, with initial gross of about Rs 78,000 a month.

Is Grade B held every year?

No. Watch the Career Notices page on nabard.org.