States must announce cooperative policy by January 31, says Amit Shah

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said on Monday (June 30, 2025) that every State should announce its cooperative policy before January 31, 2026.

Mr. Shah said that the National Cooperative Policy will be announced soon and it will be effective from 2025 to 2045. He said that under the National Cooperative Policy, each State’s cooperative policy will be formulated according to the cooperative conditions of that State and specific goals will be set.

He said that bringing discipline, innovation, and transparency to the cooperative sector across the country will be achieved through the Model National Cooperative Policy Act. The Minister added that the creation of 2 lakh Primary Agricultural Credit Societies should be completed by February 2026.

Mr. Shah chaired a “Manthan Baithak” with the Ministers of Cooperation of all States on Monday (June 30, 2025). He emphasised that for a country with a population of 140 crore, the growth of GDP and GSDP, and the creation of jobs were important. He said that cooperation was the only option for generating employment for every individual and the Ministry of Cooperation was established four years ago for this reason.

The Minister said that with sensitivity, cooperation must be revitalised for the welfare of millions of small farmers and rural people in the country because there are immense opportunities in the cooperative sector.

Also read: Cooperative movement suffered due to policy inaction in past, were almost dead, says Amit Shah

Mr. Shah said that among the 60 initiatives to develop the sector, the creation of the National Cooperative Database was important. He said that the database has been created so that cooperative institutions at the national, state, district and tehsil levels can collectively realise the government’s goal to open a cooperative in every village in the next five years.

The Minister said that there were three main reasons behind the weakening of the cooperative movement in India. He said that over time, the laws were not changed, which the Narendra Modi government has now amended.

Mr. Shah added that the cooperative activities were neither expanded nor adapted with time. He mentioned that earlier, recruitments in cooperatives were done on nepotism, which is why the idea of the Tribhuvan Sahkari University was conceived.