Genetic enhancement in the face of changing climatic and anthropogenic variables is vital for sustaining rice productivity. Rice is endowed with rich genetic diversity offering good prospect for identifying desirable germplasm, and enormous genomic resources enabling mapping and mining superior alleles for target traits. In this endeavor, high-throughput screening technique was developed through which source genotypes were identified by large-scale screening of rice germplasm for resistance to bakanae disease, low phytate content. GWAS/ linkage mapping has been utilized in mapping QTLs/ gene(s) governing economically important traits such as resistance to sheath blight, reproductive stage heat stress (RSHS) tolerance and grain quality traits. Judicious integration of genetic and genomic resources led identification of novel alleles of GS3, AHAS, SD1, LOX3 from diverse germplasm, development of functional markers and its validation for utilization in rice improvement. Molecular breeding has been effectively used for trait introgression leading to development of elite rice genotypes possessing resistance to bacterial blight, blast, bakanae diseases; tolerance to drought, herbicide and RSHS. Significant progress has been made in utilization of genetic and genomic resources in developing climate smart rice varieties with enhanced grain and nutritional quality, which provides enough scope for its use in sustaining rice production and profitability.