ABOUT RURAL RETHINK ADVISORY
Rural Rethink Advisory LLP is a practitioner-led specialist advisory firm focused on climate-aligned agriculture and rural finance and the financial architecture of the rural transition, working across India and emerging markets. We work with banks, NBFCs, MFIs, cooperatives, development institutions and rural-market organisations to make climate-aligned finance commercially viable, grounded in credit discipline and executable in the field.
The firm is built around a simple proposition: rural finance can no longer be separated from climate risk, resource efficiency, digital evidence and development and climate capital — but the transition has to work within real credit, governance and operating systems.
Our work therefore connects deep capabilities in agriculture and rural finance with climate risk, capital structures, digital and MRV systems, and institutional implementation.
MANOJ KUMAR RAWAT
FOUNDER & CEO | LEAD PRACTITIONER
“Three decades across public, private and multinational institutions have shown me what frameworks alone cannot capture. Rural Rethink was created to bring that practitioner experience to the real challenges of climate-aligned agriculture and rural finance.”
Manoj Kumar Rawat brings over three decades across banking, agriculture, rural and development finance, spanning ISRO, NABARD, Fullerton India, RBL Bank, ValueFin India and IFAD. His experience combines P&L, credit and risk, institution building, rural infrastructure, agricultural value chains and development-finance architecture.
After senior leadership roles across government, banking and private sector institutions, he chose to focus more directly on the rural and agricultural finance ecosystem, with a current focus on climate-aligned lending, portfolio strategy and institutional capacity building.
PRACTITIONER EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE PRACTICE
Manoj Kumar Rawat is a banking and development-finance professional with over three decades of experience across agriculture and rural finance, priority-sector lending, MSME finance, development finance and regulated financial institutions.
Beginning his career as a Scientist-Engineer with ISRO, his professional journey subsequently spanned NABARD, Fullerton India, RBL Bank, ValueFin India and IFAD, combining commercial banking, development finance and rural financial systems.
His work has covered P&L leadership, credit and risk, product and distribution, institution building, investment credit, refinance, rural infrastructure, financial inclusion and agricultural value chains, with career-wide exposure to approximately USD 2 billion in portfolios, financing and capital deployment across banking, agriculture, rural infrastructure and development finance.
At RBL Bank, he served as Group EVP & Head, Agriculture & Rural Business and a member of the Management Committee, leading a national business spanning agriculture, rural retail, MSME, value-chain and commodity finance, warehousing and priority-sector lending.
Earlier, he was part of the founding leadership team for Fullerton India’s rural and microfinance business, with responsibility across risk management, credit frameworks, product policy and portfolio governance.
He spent more than a decade with NABARD, working across investment credit, refinance, rural infrastructure, agricultural finance, irrigation and water resources, warehousing, cold chain, agricultural marketing, horticulture, post-harvest systems, financial inclusion and development programmes. His work also included NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) and serving as PMU In-Charge for a KfW-assisted Indo-German watershed development programme.
He later founded and led ValueFin India, an RBI-registered NBFC, as Founder, MD & CEO, with responsibility across governance, capital, regulation, credit and operations.
He has worked with IFAD as Senior Consultant & Lead Technical Architect on an agri-finance facility in Africa, covering refinancing, guarantees, risk-sharing structures, governance, operating frameworks and implementation architecture.
His experience extends across smallholder finance, FPOs and producer organisations, cooperatives, SHG/JLG systems, dairy, horticulture, agri-processing, rural enterprises, MSMEs, warehousing, commodity finance and post-harvest infrastructure.
His wider advisory, policy and institutional engagements have involved financial institutions, governments and development organisations, including work with or alongside IFAD, IFC, KfW, GIZ, the World Bank, CDC/British International
Investment, FAO and USAID.
He has advised on the Government of India’s National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) initiative, served as a Jury Member of the Global Climate Partnership Fund, and serves on the Governing Board of CLEAN Network.
An alumnus of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, where he was a B.Tech Gold Medallist, he also holds an M.E., MBA (Finance) and CAIIB, and is a Certified Independent Director through IICA. His executive and specialised learning includes programmes through Cornell, Wharton, Oxford Saïd and IIM Ahmedabad, together with professional learning in Artificial Intelligence through IBM.
He is also the author of The Carbon Trilogy — Carbon Credit: A Beginner’s Guide, The Carbon Handshake: The Golden Suture and The Carbon Economy Simplified — connecting carbon markets, finance, agriculture and the emerging carbon economy.
He has participated as a speaker and guest faculty at IIMs, IITs, banking and management institutions, training programmes, and national and international forums.
Based in Mumbai, Manoj leads Rural Rethink Advisory’s work at the intersection of agriculture and rural finance, development finance, climate-aligned finance, institutional systems and emerging technologies.
JOURNEY
▸ ISRO | 1995–1996
Scientist-Engineer
▸ NABARD | 1996–2008
Investment Credit, Refinance, Rural Infrastructure, Consultancy & Development Programmes
▸ FULLERTON | 2008–2012
Vice President — Risk Management, Rural & Microfinance
▸ RBL BANK | 2012–2017
Group EVP & Head, Agriculture & Rural Business | Management Committee
▸ VALUEFIN | 2018–2025
Bootstrapped Founder, MD & CEO
▸ IFAD | 2025–2026
Senior Consultant & Lead Technical Architect | Agri-Finance Systems
▸ RURAL RETHINK ADVISORY LLP | 2026–PRESENT
Founder & CEO | Managing Partner
SELECTED POLICY & GOVERNANCE ENGAGEMENT
▸Advised on the Government of India’s National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) initiative.
▸Served as Jury Member of the Global Climate Partnership Fund.
▸Currently serves on the Governing Board of CLEAN Network
AUTHOR AND RESEARCH
AUTHOR
Author of The Carbon Trilogy:
▸ Carbon Credit: A Beginner’s Guide
▸ The Carbon Handshake: The Golden Suture
▸ The Carbon Economy Simplified
Three books connecting carbon markets, agriculture, finance and the emerging carbon economy.
RESEARCH
Research and working papers on climate-aligned rural finance, carbon markets, smallholder finance, development-finance architecture and institutional systems.
OUR TEAM
HOW THE PRACTICE WORKS
Rural Rethink Advisory LLP brings together senior practitioners from across the rural and agricultural finance ecosystem — and we are building with purpose.
We launched with a clear conviction: that climate-aligned agriculture and rural finance needs fresh thinking alongside accumulated wisdom.
Practitioners-Led Platform
Our associates bring working knowledge from rural and cooperative banking, development finance, microfinance, agribusiness, insurance, climate finance, data sciences, remote sensing, digital lending, AI systems and policy advisory — across India and emerging markets.
The Intersection of Depth and Innovation
Decades of ground-level experience in rural banking and agricultural finance — combined with current capability in climate risk analytics and digital finance systems. That combination is what we bring to every engagement.
A Growing Network
We are actively expanding our network of associates and domain specialists who share one purpose: to bring rigorous, implementation-ready thinking to rural and agricultural finance — for institutions, for value chains, and for the communities they serve.
Our Commitment
Every engagement is senior-led, context-sensitive, and designed for outcomes that hold well beyond our time on the assignment.
CONNECT· LEAD WITH US
Rural Rethink Advisory LLP welcomes professionals, practitioners, researchers, policy specialists, development finance experts, agribusiness leaders and others interested in working, collaborating and contributing across this sector — whether through advisory work, knowledge-sharing, mentoring or domain engagement.
If this area of work resonates with you, we would be glad to connect.
+91 90820 57400