Page 26 - NIS English 01-15 December, 2025

COVER STORY International Year of Cooperatives

in the country, where each member performs their
duties in accordance with their responsibilities. The
new Ministry of Cooperation is working to facilitate
ease of doing business for cooperatives, streamline
processes, and enable the development of multi-
state cooperatives. The cooperative economy model
has been prevalent in the country since ancient
times. Currently, mass movements like Amul have
brought the benefits of cooperation to every village
and every family. The cooperative movement plays
a crucial role in increasing farmers’ incomes and
strengthening the rural economy, making villages
self-reliant. The Central Government signaled its
deep commitment to community-based develop-
ment partnerships with the establishment of the
Ministry of Cooperation. Long-term vision and ad-
ministrative reforms to strengthen cooperative insti-
tutions through the “Sahkar Se Samriddhi” approach
have transformed the cooperative sector.

THE COOPERATIVE SECTOR:
BEFORE AND NOW
For more than seven decades, farmers, the rural
population, and cooperative leaders in the country The National Cooperative Policy
had been demanding a separate Ministry for Coop-
eratives. This demand was realized by Prime Minis- 2025 provides a comprehensive
ter Narendra Modi. With the establishment of the roadmap for sustainable
Ministry of Cooperation, a new chapter in the devel- cooperative development in
opment of cooperatives began. For more than seven
decades, this sector has not received the attention the country. This roadmap also
it deserved. The cooperative movement, too, was includes coordination with the
exhibiting uneven progress across various regions. Government of India schemes
It was doing well in the West and South, moderate to strengthen the cooperative
in the Central Region, weak in the North, and even
weaker in the East. With the establishment of a sep- ecosystem at the grassroots
arate Ministry of Cooperation, this sector received level. Under the cooperative-led
structural institutional attention. A cooperative da- White Revolution 2.0, efforts
tabase was developed in collaboration with all state
governments. Today, anyone can access data on the are underway to increase milk
number of cooperatives in each region, and also the procurement by 50% over the
information on dairy, PACS, marketing, fisheries, next five years.
and housing is also easily available. Following this,
the central government decided to create 200,000 Amit Shah, Union Minister of
new primary cooperative societies (PACS), ensuring Home Affairs and Cooperation
that not a single Panchayat in the country is without
a PACS. Thanks to the efforts of the Central Govern-

24 NEW INDIA SAMACHAR || December 1-15, 2025