Aim of the experiment was to develop innovative water-saving technology for rice cultivation through reducedwater consumption and greater productivity. Hence a study was conducted with nine treatments involving drip irrigationfor one, two and four hours daily, two and four hours on alternate days, four hours once in every three days in direct seededrice (DSR) compared to farmer’s practice, surface irrigation of DSR and transplanted rice (TPR). Results revealed that, dripirrigation scheduled at 4 h daily recorded significantly higher grain yield over other irrigation schedules and control plots.Drip irrigation enhanced 24.5 and 7.2 per cent greater grain yield over surface irrigation and TPR, respectively. Whereas,water use efficiency (WUE) was 19.2 and 58.4 per cent higher in 1 h daily over surface irrigation and TPR, respectively.However, gross, net returns and BC ratio were higher in drip irrigation over transplanted rice. Drip irrigation was characterizedby greater water saving in addition to higher productivity of DSR