Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, a new Ministry of Cooperation was established on July 6, 2021 to provide a new impetus to the growth of the cooperative sector and to realize the vision from cooperation to prosperity. The Ministry of Cooperation under the dynamic leadership of Union Minister of Home Affairs and Cooperation Shri Amit Shah is continuously working for the development of cooperative sector in collaboration with all State Governments and other stakeholders.
In this context, the Ministry of Cooperation has organized a two-day Conference of Cooperation Ministers at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 8-9 September 2022. On the opening day, the conference began with the welcome address by the Minister for Cooperation, Shri B. L. Verma and the inaugural address by the Union Minister of Home Affairs and Cooperation Shri Amit Shah. On the first day of yesterday’s conference, ministers for cooperation, UT governors and several high-ranking officials expressed their thoughts on a number of sectors related to cooperation.
The two-day conference was addressed by Cooperation Ministers from 21 States and Governors of 2 UTs, Shri Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary (M/o Cooperation, Government of India), Shri Vijay Kumar, Additional Secretary and Central Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Principal and Addl. Principal Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Registrars of Cooperative Societies of States/UTs shared their views and suggestions for strengthening the cooperative sector. All the States/UTs made a presentation and shared their best practices.
Various important topics were discussed including – National Cooperation Policy, National Cooperative Database, New proposed schemes of the Ministry for Cooperation viz. PACS in every Panchayat, export of agricultural and other products, promotion and marketing of organic products, expansion of cooperatives to new areas. Further, topics related to PACS and model bye-laws including PACS computer equipment, action plan for revitalization of defunct PACS, model PACS bye-laws along with issues related to primary co-operative societies regarding preference for long-term funding, Milk Co-operative societies and fish co-operatives were discussed. etc.
NCDC, a leader in cooperative finance, was briefed on the prospects and modalities of lending to the cooperative sector, with support through its regional headquarters across the states. Shri Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary, (Ministry of Cooperation, Government of India) highlighted the strength of the cooperative movement in the country and requested the states to adopt state-of-the-art software along with up-to-date hardware under the onComputerization of PACS project as approved. by the Government of India.
Further, to promote cooperative exports, the ministry is facilitating the registration of a national export house of a cooperative society under the MSCS Act, 2002, which will work closely with the Union Ministry of External Affairs and the Union Ministry of Commerce to tap the export potential of the nearly 30 million people associated with the cooperative movement. The Secretary (Cooperation) also informed about the registration of a multi-state cooperative society for production, purchase, labeling and marketing of organic products and quality seeds.
He further said that the Ministry of Cooperation is taking steps to ensure that cooperatives are treated like other economic forms. The conference concluded with the determination of all stakeholders to work together to provide impetus for a cooperative economic model in the country to realize the Sahkar Se Samaridhi mantra.
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