NABARD, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, sits behind the rural co-operative credit structure rather than in front of it. It refinances the tiers rather than taking deposits from the public, so a saver never banks with NABARD directly.
It matters here for two reasons.
It is the implementing agency for PACS computerisation. The Ministry of Cooperation funds the Centrally Sponsored Project for Computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, approved on 29 June 2022 with an outlay of ₹2,516 crore covering 63,000 societies over five years, and NABARD runs it. NABARD also "has on boarded the National Level PACS Software Vendor (NLPSV)" developing the common software those societies will run on. That makes NABARD the single largest influence on what rural co-operative software will look like this decade, including whatever handles collection.
It channels the money behind the subsidy schemes. Under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, interest is capped at 9% with a 3% subvention, and the Ministry records that NABARD loans to PACS run at 1% after subvention. NABARD is also the channelising agency for subsidy under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure sub-scheme.
The Ministry describes a PACS as the final link between rural borrowers and "the Scheduled Commercial Banks, and the RBI/NABARD". Read from the depositor's end, NABARD is two tiers above the person handing cash to a collector at the door.