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Subsidised loans to co-ops set to reach ₹50k-cr: Shah
Disbursement to cooperatives in the current financial year to March will touch ₹50,000 crore from ₹5,300 crore in 2013-14, which was a “matter of great pride”, Shah said
New Delhi:
The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is set to achieve a nearly tenfold growth in disbursing financial assistance since 2013-14, home and cooperation minister Amit Shah said on Monday at the 89th general council meeting of the state-backed entity.
Disbursement to cooperatives in the current financial year to March will touch ₹50,000 crore from ₹5,300 crore in 2013-14, which was a “matter of great pride”, Shah said, adding the corporation has no non-performing assets, with a loan recovery rate of over 99% in the past fiscal year.
The state-backed NCDC, set up in 1963, is an implementing agency for development programmes of the Union government .
India is looking to boost the economic potential of its large number of cooperatives spread across the country with reforms that can quicken the country’s GDP expansion to reach a targeted $5 trillion by 2025, according to recent government announcements.
Cooperatives are collectives owned by participating members who share profits and losses, such as a rural business or banks. It counts 290 million farmers as members. The popular milk brand Amul, for instance, is a cooperative. So is India’s largest fertilizer maker, IFFCO.
In July 2021, the Narendra Modi government created a ministry for cooperation, helmed by Shah, carving it out of the farm ministry. The Centre has since rolled out several changes to digitise and expand a sector that plays a key role in the rural economy.
The NCDC has helped to foster the economic development of cooperatives in the country, from creating infrastructure facilities involved in “agricultural marketing and inputs to processing, storage and cold chain”, Shah said. “The ambit of NCDC has widened to include areas in keeping with the needs of the society and boost income of youth in the country,” he said.
Among a slew of reforms, Parliament had passed the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2022, in July. The law seeks to bring transparency in the governance of cooperatives, paves the way for a “cooperative election authority” to bring electoral reforms and prevent malpractices in the sector.
Aside from being a large provider of employment, the sector has nearly 38,000 viable primary agricultural cooperative societies, which are now being digitized.
