Bitter harvest: The rise of bad loans in the agriculture sector
Hindustan Times Noida
|January 03, 2026
The RBI released its biannual Financial Stability Report (FSR) on December 31.
Data on bad loans, or non-performing assets (NPA), shows that bank balance sheets are healthier than they have ever been in the last decade, with gross NPAs as a share of total advances falling to just 2.2% in September 2025.However, there is one statistic in the FSR which should set off alarm bells for policy observers. Agriculture accounts for the highest share of bad loans and this share has been rising for quite some time now. A further examination also shows that agriculture's share in bad loans is disproportionately larger than its overall share in bank credit in the country.
Bad loans have moved from non-farm businesses to farms and households
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) database has sector-wise NPA share data from the quarter ending March 2015. Back then, industry and services accounted for more than 80% of the total NPAs of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs). The situation remained broadly unchanged for five years but started changing steadily after that.
This story is from the January 03, 2026 edition of Hindustan Times Noida.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Hindustan Times Noida
Hindustan Times Noida
Jamaican Chinelle Henry keen to pour on the power for Delhi Capitals
Hailing from the land of track-and-field legends with a history of cricketing greatness too, Jamaica's Chinelle Henry used to wonder if she madé a mistake by choosing cricket — a game that didn’t immediately choose her back.
3 mins
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Rajnath to commission Samudra Pratap today
The Indian Coast Guard’s first indigenously designed and built pollution control vessel ‘Samudra Pratap’ will be commissioned into the ICG by defence minister Rajnath Singh on January 5, officials said on Sunday.
1 min
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Anti-war Maga rally around Trump’s strike
While US President Donald Trump had built his political identity around criticising foreign overreach and vowing to avoid overseas entanglements, his allies in the Republican Party and the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement—many of whom had opposed foreign wars and regime-change interventions—largely rallied behind his actions in Venezuela on Saturday and Sunday, Reuters and CNN reported.
1 mins
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Govt relaxes norms for startups to avail DSIR financial aid
The Centre on Sunday relaxed the norms for deep-tech startups to avail financial assistance from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).
1 min
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Root, Brook tame Australia on Day |
Joe Root and Harry Brook tamed Australia’s all-pace attack with an unbroken 154-run stand on Sunday to rescue England and give them the upper hand after a rain-hit day one of the fifth and final Ashes Test.
2 mins
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Nigeria arrests 22 Indian ship crew in drug bust
Nigeria's drug enforcement agency on Sunday said it had arrested 22 Indian crew members of a merchant ship after 31.5 kilogrammes of cocaine was found on the vessel at Lagos’s main port.
1 min
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Stage set for heated Delhi assembly winter session
The Delhi assembly’s winter session is set to begin on Monday, with heated debates expected as the government plans to table CAG reports on alleged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-era irregularities, table the Jan Vishwas Bill to decriminalise minor offences, and hold discussions on air pollution.
1 min
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
People of TN fed up with most corrupt DMK: Shah
Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday launched a scathing attack against the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) regime in Tamil Nadu, calling it the most corrupt in the country, and expressed confidence that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would form a government in the southern state as well as in West Bengal after the assembly polls due this year.
2 mins
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
150-km rule doesn't bar greenfield airports, says civil aviation minister
NEW DELHI: The ‘150-km aerial distance’ rule, which prohibits the construction of a greenfield airport within that radius, will no longer apply if the capacity of the existing aerodrome is saturated, Union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Sunday.
1 min
January 05, 2026
Hindustan Times Noida
Over 130 arrested in 2025 for passport and visa fraud at IGI
In a large-scale crackdown on visa and passport fraud, the IGI Airport unit of Delhi Police arrested more than 130 people in 2025, including travel agents and facilitators allegedly involved in illegal immigration networks operating across the country, police said on Saturday.
1 min
January 05, 2026
Listen
Translate
Change font size