• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved that the ambit of the Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) would be comprehensively extended.
• The revised Scheme is expected to cover around 2 crore more farmers, increasing the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries.
• With this decision, all land holding eligible farmer families (subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria) would avail of the benefits under this scheme.

About Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi:

• The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) launched by Modi in February provides income support to small and marginal farmer families with cultivable land holding up to two hectares across the country by way of payment of Rs 6,000 per year.
• So far the first instalment of three crore beneficiaries and the second instalment of 2.66 crore beneficiaries have been credited directly to the bank accounts of farmer families.
• The revised scheme will cover around two crores more farmers who were earlier left out, thus increasing the total number of beneficiaries to 14.5 crore from earlier 12.5 crore.
• In the pension scheme, after the subscriber's death, while receiving the pension, the spouse of a beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50 per cent of the pension as family pension provided, he or she is not already a small and marginal beneficiary scheme.
• The government said that an interesting feature of the scheme is that a farmer can opt to allow his or her monthly contribution to the scheme to be met from benefits from the PM-KISAN directly.
• The scheme also aims at covering a minimum of five crore small and marginal farmers in the first three years.