Lok Sabha Question No. 4019 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-25
Subject: New Cooperative Societies
Ministry: COOPERATION
Asked by: Shri Brijmohan Agrawal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COOPERATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4019 TO BE ANSWERED ON  25 th  MARCH, 2025

## New Cooperative Societies

## 4019. Shri Brijmohan Agrawal:

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

- (a) whether the Government proposes to establish new cooperative societies in villages and cities and strengthen the existing ones;
- (b) whether the Government proposes to formulate any policy to improve the functioning of cooperative banks in Chhattisgarh and to provide easy credit to small farmers and traders;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to implement any scheme to develop cooperative dairy network for milk producers and to get them fair prices;
- (d) whether the Government is running special training programmes to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship among women and youth through cooperative organizations; and
- (e) whether the Government is providing financial assistance to promote agro-based industries (such as food processing) through cooperative model?

## ANSWER

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

- (a): Yes,  Sir.  The  Government  on  15.2.2023,  has  approved  the  plan  to  establish  and strengthen 2 lakh multipurpose PACS, Dairy, and Fishery Cooperative Societies, covering all the  Panchayats  and  villages  across  the  country  over  a  period  of  five  years,  which  is  being implemented with the support of NABARD, NDDB, NFDB and State Governments.
- (b): The Government has undertaken several measures to strengthen both Urban and Rural Cooperative  Banks  across  the  country,  including  in  State  of  Chhattisgarh  ensuring  their expansion and enhancing financial accessibility, which are enclosed at Annexure .
- (c): The Ministry of Cooperation has launched a Cooperative-led "White Revolution 2.0' initiative which aims at expanding the share of dairy cooperative societies in organized dairy sector, provide market access to small dairy farmers and contribute to employment generation & women empowerment. The objective of this initiative is to increase the milk procurement of dairy cooperatives by 50% from the present level over next five years. In this regard, a Standard

Operating Procedure (SOP) has also been launched on 19.11.2024. As on 27.1.2025, 8,294 new Dairy Cooperative Societies have been registered in the country.

(d): In  order  to  promote  self-employment  and  entrepreneurship  among  women  &  youth through  cooperatives,  National  Cooperative  Development  Corporation  (NCDC),  a  statutory corporation of Ministry of Cooperation, is implementing the following schemes:

- SWAYAM  SHAKTI  SAHAKAR  YOJNA:  The  scheme  aims  to  provide  financial assistance to Agricultural Credit Cooperatives for providing loan/ advances to Women Self Help Groups (SHGs).
- NANDINI  SAHAKAR:  The  scheme  aims  to  improve  the  socio-economic  status  of women  and  supports  the  entrepreneurial  dynamism  of  women  through  women's cooperatives. It converges critical inputs of women's  enterprise, business plan formulation,  capacity  development,  credit  and  subsidy,  and/  or  interest  subvention  of other schemes.
- YUVA  SAHAKAR-  Cooperative  Enterprise  Support  and  Innovation  Scheme:  The scheme  aims  at  encouraging  newly  formed  cooperative  societies  with  new  and/  or innovative ideas.

In addition to the above, NCDC- Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC) along with Regional Training Centres has conducted a total of 1,370 training programs in the last five years (i.e. from 2020-21 to 2024-25) on subjects like Business Development and Assets Management, General Management in PACS, Role of Women Directors in Governance and Business Development in Cooperatives/SHGs, Accounts and Book Keeping and various programmes through which around 1,90,894 participants including 38,179 women participants have benefitted.

(e): NCDC is also an implementation agency of various Centrally sponsored/ Central sector Schemes of Government of India, under which financial assistance is provided to promote agrobased  industries  (such  as  food  processing)  through  cooperative  model,  such  as Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)- a sub-scheme of Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Marketing (ISAM),  Pradhan  Mantri  Formalisation  of  Micro  Food  Processing  Enterprises  Scheme (PMFME),  Agriculture  Infrastructure  Fund  (AIF),  National  Beekeeping  Honey  Mission (NBHM) and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO). In FY 2024-25, NCDC has released an amount of Rs. 89,750 crores for the development of cooperative societies, including processing sector.

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## Measures taken by Ministry of Cooperation, GoI to strengthen the Urban and Rural Cooperative Banks

1. Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) have been allowed to open new branches to expand their business: UCBs can now open new branches up to 10% (maximum 5 branches) of the existing number of branches in the previous financial year without prior approval of RBI.
2. UCBs have been allowed by RBI to offer doorstep services to their customers: Door step banking facility can now be provided by UCBs. Account holders of these banks can now avail various banking facilities at home such as cash withdrawal, cash deposit, KYC, demand draft and life certificate for pensioners, etc.
3. Cooperative banks have been allowed to make one-time settlement of outstanding loans, like Commercial Banks: Co-operative banks, through board-approved policies, can now provide the process for settlement with borrowers, along with technical write-off.
4. Time limit increased to achieve Priority Sector Lending (PSL) targets given to UCBs : RBI has extended the timeline for UCBs to achieve Priority Sector Lending (PSL) targets by two years i.e., up to March 31, 2026.
5. A Nodal Officer designated in RBI for regular interaction with UCBs : In order to meet the  long  pending  demand  of  the  cooperative  sector  for  closer  coordination  and  focused interaction, RBI has notified a nodal officer.
6. Individual  housing  loan  limit  more  than  doubled  by  RBI  for  Rural  and  Urban Cooperative Banks:
- a. Housing loan limit of Urban Cooperative Banks has now been doubled from Rs. 30 lakhs to Rs.60 lakhs.
- b. Housing loan limit of Rural Cooperative Banks has been increased to two and a half times to Rs.75 lakhs.
7. Rural Cooperative Banks will now be able to lend to commercial real estate/ residential housing  sector,  thereby  diversifying  their  business :  This  will  not  only  help  Rural Cooperative Banks to diversify their business, but will benefit Housing cooperative societies also.
8. License fee reduced for Cooperative Banks : License fee for onboarding Cooperative Banks to 'Aadhaar Enabled Payment System' (AePS) has been reduced by linking it to the number of transactions. Cooperative financial institutions will also be able to get the facility free of cost for the first three months of the pre-production phase. With this, farmers will now be able to get the facility of banking at their home with through biometrics.
9. Non-scheduled  UCBs,  StCBs  and  DCCBs  notified  as  Member  Lending  Institutions (MLIs)  in  CGTMSE  Scheme  to  increase  the  share  of  cooperatives  in  lending: Cooperative banks will now be able to take advantage of risk coverage up to 85 percent on the loans given. Also, cooperative sector enterprises will also be able to get collateral free loans from cooperative banks now.
10. Notification of Scheduling norms for including Urban Cooperative Banks: UCBs that meet the 'Financially Sound and Well Managed' (FSWM) criteria and have maintained the minimum deposits required for classification as Tier 3 for the last two years are now eligible to be included in Schedule II of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and get 'Scheduled' status.
11. Monetary ceiling doubled by RBI for Gold Loan: RBI has doubled monetary ceiling from Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs.4 lakhs, for those UCBs that meet the PSL targets.
12. Umbrella Organization for Urban Cooperative Banks : RBI has accorded approval to the National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks and Credit Societies Ltd. (NAFCUB) for the formation of an Umbrella Organization (UO) for the UCB sector, which will provide necessary IT infrastructure and operational support to around 1,500 UCBs.

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