A National Cooperative Tribunal along the lines of the National Company Law, a National Board for Cooperatives similar to the National Board for MSMEs, and setting up an RBI-licensed National Cooperative Bank of India are likely to be some of the key features of the much-awaited National Cooperation Policy that is set to be unveiled this month, it is learnt.

The proposed policy offering a roadmap for the next 25 years i.e. from 2024-2047 is in keeping with the Modi Government’s vision of  ‘Sahakar se  Samriddhi’, promoting the cooperative-based economic development model,  strengthening the cooperative movement in the country and deepening its reach up to the grassroots.

The new policy which would replace the old one formulated way back in 2002  also proposes a ranking framework for states for the development of cooperatives, said sources.

The proposed policy has been prepared by a national panel led by Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in 2022.

As per the government data, India has around 8.5 lakh cooperative societies with nearly 29 crore members spread across the country, engaged in an array of activities like agro-processing, dairying, fisheries, housing, weaving, credit and marketing to name a few.

The National Cooperative Tribunal will be entrusted with the task of resolving disputes and reconstructing sick cooperatives while the objective of the National Cooperative Bank of India is to deploy funds for 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), which are village-level cooperative credit societies dealing directly with farmers, said the sources.

Since its formation, the Union Cooperation Ministry under Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has been taking several steps to strengthen the cooperative ecosystem in India to enhance cooperatives’ share in GDP.

Model Bye-Laws for PACS making them multipurpose, multidimensional, and transparent entities, strengthening PACS through computerization, new multipurpose PACS/ Dairy/ Fishery Cooperatives in uncovered Panchayats, among others.

Also, a pilot project has already started as a part of the world’s largest decentralized grain storage plan in the cooperative Sector to ensure food security, PACS as Common Service Centers (CSCs) for better access to e-services as envisaged by the Government to help boost the earnings of those associated with the sector.

Also, three new key Multi-State Societies at the National Level were announced recently.  These are the National Multi-State Cooperative Seed Society for certified seeds, the National Multi-State Cooperative Organic Society for organic farming, and the National Multi-State Cooperative Export Society for promoting exports.

The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has been entrusted with promoting these three new national-level cooperative societies so that these societies grow in their business like many big brands in the cooperative sector. 

NCDC is also one of the implementing agencies promoting the government's scheme of Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) as well as Fish Farmers Producer Organisations (FFPOs) under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, said an official from the Ministry.

The Government also plans to set up the World’s Largest Cooperative University for cooperative education, training, consultancy, research and development, and a sustainable and quality supply of trained manpower.