The prime objective of NCRI is to strengthen rural India in a holistic manner, using education as an instrument of social advancement.

The main objectives as spelt out in the Memorandum of Association and Rules are:

• To promote rural higher education on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi's revolutionary ideas on education, so as to take up challenges of micro planning for transformation of rural areas as envisaged in NPE 1986 (as modified in 1992);
• To consolidate, network and develop institutions engaged in programs of Gandhian Basic Education and Nai Talim;
• To encourage other educational institutions and voluntary agencies to develop in accordance with Gandhian philosophy of education;
• To strengthen teacher-training facilities for Gandhian basic education;
• To design a variety of courses at tertiary level around emerging rural occupation;
• To strengthen the content of all these institutions with emphasis on science and technology;
• To encourage field-oriented courses of rural institutes
• To promote research as a tool for social and rural development;
• To promote extension services to the community through micro-level planning; and
• To advise Government of India on all such matters pertaining to rural institutes as may be referred to it from time to time.