Subject: GS 2: Polity & Governance
Context: Recently, the 8th National Conference on Cooperatives was held in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, under the theme ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi — From Vision to Ground Reality’.
- This conference marks a major shift in India’s cooperative movement from a purely regulatory framework to a development-driven approach, drawing up a strict six-month target roadmap for all States and Union Territories.
- The Ministry of Cooperation recently held the first meeting of its National Level Policy Implementation and Monitoring Committee in New Delhi.
- The panel met to design a country-wide roadmap to execute the newly launched National Cooperation Policy 2025.
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About National Cooperation Policy 2025
- The policy is a comprehensive national framework designed to transform India’s cooperative societies into transparent, technology-enabled, professionally managed, and member-centric economic institutions.
- Guided by the Prime Minister’s vision of “Sahkar se Samriddhi” (Prosperity through Cooperation), it acts as a core vehicle to energize the rural economy and drive India toward Viksit Bharat @2047.
- Objective: To build an inclusive, tech-driven, and future-ready cooperative sector that supports India’s Viksit Bharat vision by 2047.
- Goals of National Cooperation Policy 2025:
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- Expand Scale and Impact: Increase the number of cooperatives by 30% and triple their GDP contribution by integrating 50 crore active members by 2034.
- Achieve Universal Coverage: Establish at least one primary cooperative unit in every panchayat to ensure grassroots-level outreach.
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The Core Policy Shift- From Numbers to Quality
The Ministry of Cooperation has emphasized that the initial phase of setting up basic policy frameworks is complete. The next phase must move away from simply counting newly formed societies and focus on four pillars of grassroots transformation:
- Structural Quality: Ensuring new cooperatives are financially stable and viable.
- Accountability: Building strong internal checks to prevent corruption and mismanagement.
- Professional Management: Training local members to run cooperatives like modern businesses.
- Visible Ground Impact: Measuring success by the direct increase in rural incomes and local job creation.
Key Pillars of the India Cooperative Roadmap
The conference outlined five key areas to modernize India’s cooperative ecosystem:
- Digital Banking and Financial Inclusion: Cooperative banks must adopt modern tech platforms to stay relevant against UPI and private digital financial services.
- Rural and urban cooperative banks will be integrated into common tech platforms to improve service delivery and financial discipline.
- Strengthening the Grassroots via PACS: Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) remain the backbone of the rural economy.
- The mandate calls for setting up new multipurpose PACS, dairy, and fishery cooperatives in all uncovered Panchayats. These will adopt model bye-laws, computerization, and business diversification to become village-level economic hubs.
- Data-Driven Governance (National Cooperative Database 2.0): The upgraded Database 2.0 platform allows cooperatives to update and validate their data directly.
- This removes middlemen, reduces red tape, and provides real-time data to help the government make accurate policy decisions.
- Decentralized Post-Harvest Infrastructure: States were directed to speed up construction under the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan.
- By bringing storage facilities directly to the village level through PACS, the plan aims to eliminate post-harvest crop losses and save farmers from forced distress sales.
- Sustainability and Circular Economy: Cooperatives are urged to lead clean energy projects by converting rural waste into wealth.
- This includes setting up compressed biogas (CBG) units, processing sugar by-products, and producing quality organic manure to create extra income streams for farmers.
Constitutional Provisions for Cooperatives in India
- 97th Constitutional Amendment: Added Part IXB (The Co-Operative Societies) to the Constitution.
- The Right to Form Cooperative Societies was included as the Right to Freedom under Article 19 (1).
- Article 43-B that deals with Promotion of Cooperative Societies was also inserted as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
- Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2023: Amendment has been brought in the MSCS Act, 2002 to strengthen governance, enhance transparency, increase accountability, reform electoral process and incorporate provisions of 97th Constitutional Amendment in the Multi State Cooperative Societies.
Other Government Initiatives to Strengthen Cooperatives:
- Ministry of Cooperation: The establishment of the Ministry of Cooperation in 2021 has provided a dedicated platform for addressing the needs and challenges of the cooperative sector.
- Financial Support: The government provides financial assistance to cooperatives through various schemes and programs.
- For Example under Computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) scheme government has allocated ₹2,516 crore to computerize nearly 63,000 PACS.
- Targeting different Sectors:
- Digital Services: PACS are being transformed into Common Service Centers (CSCs) to deliver a wide range of e-services to rural citizens.
- Healthcare: PM Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendras are being operated by PACS to improve access to affordable medicines in rural areas.
- Energy: Under the PM-KUSUM Convergence scheme, PACS are promoting solar energy adoption among farmers for sustainable agriculture.
- Fisheries: Fish Farmer Producer Organizations (FFPOs) are being formed to empower fish farmers and enhance their market access.
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Conclusion
The Srinagar National Conference makes it clear that the cooperative sector is no longer just a marginal part of the rural economy, but a primary engine for inclusive growth. True rural prosperity (Sahkar se Samriddhi) will be achieved only when state governments successfully turn local PACS into technology-enabled, diversified, and professionally run commercial institutions.
26 Jun 2026
