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We report the analysis of the genome of a novel <i>Alphabaculovirus</i>, <i>Parapoynx stagnalis</i> nucleopolyhedrovirus isolate 473 (PastNPV-473), from cadavers of the rice case bearer, <i>Parapoynx stagnalis</i> Zeller (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), collected in rice fields in Kerala, India. High-throughput sequencing of DNA from PastNPV occlusion bodies and assembly of the data yielded a circular genome-length contig of 114,833 bp with 126 annotated opening reading frames (ORFs) and six homologous regions (<i>hr</i>s). Phylogenetic inference based on baculovirus core gene amino acid sequence alignments indicated that PastNPV is a member of the group I clade of viruses in genus <i>Alphabaculovirus</i>, but different phylogenetic methods yielded different results with respect to the placement of PastNPV and four similarly divergent alphabaculoviruses in the group I clade. Branch lengths and Kimura-2-parameter pairwise nucleotide distances indicated that PastNPV-473 cannot be classified in any of the currently listed species in genus <i>Alphabaculovirus</i>. A unique feature of the PastNPV genome was the presence of an ORF encoding a homolog of Ran GTPase, a regulator of nucleocytoplasmic trafficking. PastNPV appears to have acquired a homolog of Ran relatively recently from a lepidopteran host via horizontal gene transfer.