Lok Sabha Question No. 161 (STARRED), answered on 2025-03-11
Subject: University for Cooperative Sector
Ministry: COOPERATION
Asked by: Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Shri Balabhadra Majhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COOPERATION

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 161 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH  MARCH, 2025

## University for Cooperative Sector

## *161.   Shri Balabhadra Majhi: Shri Anurag Singh Thakur:

Will the Minister of Cooperation (सहकारिता मंत्री) be pleased to state:

- (a)  the  manner  in  which  the  proposed  university  on  Cooperatives  would  contribute  to  the growth and professionalisation of the cooperative sector in the country, especially in terms of modernizing training systems and creating experts in various fields of cooperatives;
- (b)  the  steps  that  are  being  taken  to  promote  women's  participation  and  leadership  in cooperatives particularly Chhattisgarh;
- (c) the measures being taken to ensure that the cooperative sector remains competitive in the digital age, including the use of technology to enhance transparency, efficiency and member services; and
- (d) the procedure for designing university's curriculum to ensure practical training and research in cooperative management, incorporating the latest best practices and innovations in the field?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF COOPERATION सहकारिता मंत्री (SHRI AMIT SHAH)

- (a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) in respect of Lok Sabha Starred Question no. 161 for reply on 11 th  March, 2025 asked by Shri Balabhadra Majhi and Shri Anurag Singh Thakur regarding University for Cooperative Sector.

- (a) The  proposed  University  on  Cooperatives  would  contribute  to  the  growth  and professionalisation of the cooperative sector in the following manner, by -
- (i) providing qualified and trained manpower to meet the present and future needs of the cooperative sector,
- (ii) providing training, education and capacity building to the employees and board members of cooperative societies at all levels,
- (iii) providing distance learning or mass e-learning platform and courses for serving the education and training needs of the cooperative societies,
- (iv) standardizing  the  course  design  and  content,  pedagogy,  course  delivery  in cooperative education and training in accordance  with the national and international best practices.
- (b) Following steps have been taken to promote women's participation and leadership in cooperatives-
- (i) Model Bye Laws for the PACS has been prepared by the Ministry of Cooperation and  adopted  by  the  States/UTs  across  the  country.  It  mandates  requirement  of women Directors in the Board of PACS. This is ensuring representation of women and their decision making in more than 1 Lakh PACS.
- (ii) Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002 was amended through MSCS (Amendment) Act,  2023  wherein,  a  specific  provision  has  been  introduced  for reservation of two seats for women in the Board of MSCS , paving the way for gender equal growth in Co-operative Sector.
- (iii) The Ministry has launched a new initiative of cooperative-led 'White Revolution 2.0' with the aim of enhancing employment and promoting women's empowerment. The key objective of this initiative is to increase procurement of milk by dairy cooperatives by 50% over the next five years, by providing market access to dairy farmers in areas that have not yet been covered by the organized dairy  sector  and  by  promoting  the  share  of  dairy  cooperative  societies  in  the organized dairy sector.
- (iv) National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a statutory corporation under the administrative control of Ministry of Cooperation, has been playing a significant  role  over  the  years  to  improve  socio-economic  status  of  women cooperatives enabling them to take up business model-based activities. NCDC is implementing the following scheme exclusively for women cooperatives: Nandini Sahakar - under this scheme, term loan is provided to women cooperatives for a period of 5-8 years with the interest subvention of up to 2% on term loan. The financial assistance under the scheme is provided for business plan based activity /service mandated to NCDC
- (v) Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC) and its Regional Training Centers (RTCs) function as the training, research and consultancy  wing  of  NCDC.  To  promote  women's participation and leadership in cooperatives in the State of Chhattisgarh, LINAC and RTC-Raipur has conducted following programmes -
- (c) Following measures have been taken for cooperative to remain competitive in digital age through use of technology to enhance transparency, efficiency, and member services:
- (i) Computerization of PACS Project: Government of India has approved the Project for Computerization of functional PACS, which entails bringing all the functional PACS  onto  an  ERP  (Enterprise  Resource  Planning)  based  Common  National Software, linking them with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) through State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District

| Year                       | No. of Training Programmes   | No. of Women Participants   |
|----------------------------|------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| 2020-21                    |                              |                             |
| LINAC                      | 2                            | 9                           |
| RTC                        | 2                            | 15                          |
| 2021-22                    |                              |                             |
| LINAC                      | -                            | -                           |
| RTC                        | 10                           | 307                         |
| 2022-23                    |                              |                             |
| LINAC                      | -                            | -                           |
| RTC                        | 8                            | 186                         |
| 2023-24                    |                              |                             |
| LINAC                      | 3                            | 40                          |
| RTC                        | 5                            | 92                          |
| 2024-25 (as on 31.01.2025) | 2024-25 (as on 31.01.2025)   |                             |
| LINAC                      | 4                            | 83                          |
| RTC                        | 5                            | 19                          |
| Total                      | 39                           | 751                         |

Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs). The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) based Common National Software brings about efficiency in PACS performance through  Common  Accounting  System  (CAS)  and  Management  Information System (MIS). Further,  governance  and  transparency  in  PACS  also  improves, leading to speedy disbursal of loans, lowering of transaction cost, reduction in imbalances in payments, seamless accounting with DCCBs and StCBs.

- (ii) Computerization  of Agriculture  and  Rural  Development  Banks  (ARDBs):  To strengthen the long-term cooperative credit structure, the project of computerization  of  1,851  units  of Agriculture  and  Rural  Development  Banks (ARDBs) spread across 13 States/ Union Territories has been approved by the Government. NABARD is the implementing agency for the project.
- (iii) PACS as Common Service Centers (CSCs) for better access to e-services: An MoU has been signed between Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry of Electronics and  Information  Technology  (MeitY),  NABARD  and  CSC  e-Governance Services India Limited for providing more than 300 e-services such as banking, insurance, Aadhar enrolment/ updation, health services, PAN card and IRCTC/ Bus/ Air ticket, etc. through PACS.
- (iv) Under the initiatives of the Ministry, a portal for the office of Central Registrar of Cooperative  Societies  (CRCS)  i.e.,  www.crcs.gov.in  has  been  developed  and successfully launched on 6th August, 2023. This initiative is aimed to digitize and make the office of CRCS paperless by providing various services under MultiState Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act/Rules online, to make the management of MSCSs easier and to enhance transparency & efficiency in the working of the CRCS  office. All  the  working  processes  of  CRCS  office  inter-alia  including Registration, Amendment of Bye-laws, filling of Annual return, branch opening, sale officer appointment, online payments to Cooperative Education Fund (CEF) and Cooperative Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development Fund (CRRDF), etc. are being processed through the new online portal in compliance with the statutory requirements of MSCS Act.
- (v) Computerization of Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) of States/UTs: A centrally sponsored project for the computerization of RCS  offices in States/Union  Territories  has  been  approved  by  the  Central  Government  on 06.10.2023 with a budgetary outlay of Rs.94.59 crore for three years w.e.f. 202324. This is a part of the umbrella project of 'Strengthening Cooperatives Through IT Interventions' of the Ministry. The objectives of the project are to enhance the

ease of doing business for Cooperative Societies and create a digital ecosystem for transparent & paperless transactions of cooperative societies with the RCS offices in all States/Union Territories. The software developed under this project will be as per the Cooperative Acts of the respective States/UTs.

- (vi) NABARD as part of its developmental role, had facilitated the Rural Cooperative Banks (RCBs) to onboard the Core Banking Solution (CBS) in 2011. 211 RCBs are availing of services of two CBS clouds facilitated by NABARD. Currently, NABARD is also facilitating these banks to upgrade their CBS systems.
- (vii) With the approval of Reserve Bank of India, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) viz.  National Urban Cooperative Finance and Development Corporation Limited (NUCFDC), has been set up as an Umbrella Organization (UO) for Urban Cooperative  Banks  (UCB)  in  India.  It  aims  to  digitally  transform  the  India's Urban Cooperative Bank (UCB) sector as a major player in the country's financial system by providing a robust and reliable IT infrastructure that can significantly reduce IT costs for UCBs while enabling them to provide modern digital banking products based on latest technology.
- (viii) A pilot project to promote 'Cooperation among Cooperatives' was launched on 21st May, 2023 in Banaskantha and Panchmahal districts of Gujarat. One of the components, of the project is to distribute Micro-ATMs to the dairy cooperative societies  after  making  them  Bank-Mitra  of  the  DCCBs  to  provide  'Door  Step Financial  Services'  and  to  ensure  ease  of  doing  business,  transparency  and financial inclusion. On the basis of learnings during the Pilot period, a Statewide Campaign was launched in Gujarat on 15th January 2024.  A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) launched on 19th September, 2024 for Nationwide implementation  of  the  'Cooperation  among  Cooperatives'  Campaign.  As  on 28.02.2025, 9915 micro-ATMs have been distributed.

(d) A  consultative  procedure  would  be  followed  by  the  proposed  University  in  designing curricula/courses  for  degree/diploma,  training  and  skill  development.  Related  stakeholders from different tiers of cooperatives including sector experts will be consulted through a wellstructured consultative mechanism to ensure curricula are need-based and industry-oriented.

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