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Panel set up to draft new national cooperatives policy: Centre
The move is in line with steps to revamp the country’s cooperative sector to boost growth. The government has named the upcoming national policy as ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’ (prosperity through cooperatives).
Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah has set up a national-level committee for drafting a national cooperation policy document, a government statement said on Tuesday.
The move is in line with steps to revamp the country’s cooperative sector to boost growth. The government has named the upcoming national policy as ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’ (prosperity through cooperatives).
According to the statement, the panel is led by former Union minister Suresh Prabhu and comprises 47 members from various states.
The Union government plans to expand the scope of economic activities undertaken by rural cooperatives to boost employment. New model bylaws, a draft of which has been circulated to states, is also being worked on, HT reported on July 15.
The central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi created a separate ministry of cooperation in July 2021, carving it out of the farm ministry. Since the ministry was formed, it has brought in several policy changes.
A programme to digitise primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS), which are last-mile entities that lend credit to farmers, is also currently underway, according to Tuesday’s statement.
“A national cooperation policy will soon be prepared which will have a holistic approach from PACS upwards,” the statement said. The vision of the policy will be to promote a “cooperative-based economic development model”, it added.
The national committee set up for a new policy includes experts from the cooperatives sector as well as representatives from states, districts and PACS, the statement added
Cooperatives are collectives owned jointly by members, who share profits among them — such as a farm-based business or a rural bank. Milk brand Amul and fertiliser manufacturer IFFCO, are among leading cooperatives in the country. India has nearly 850,000 cooperative societies with a total membership of nearly 290 million people, making it a large sector of the economy.
