Marking five years since the establishment of the Ministry of Cooperation, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Monday unveiled an ambitious roadmap to broaden the reach of the cooperative movement, announcing plans to launch a cooperative life insurance company, expand the Bharat Taxi platform to 500 cities, and transform Bharat Beej Cooperative Society into India's largest seed producer within three years.
Addressing the Foundation Day celebrations of the Ministry of Cooperation in New Delhi, Shah said the government has spent the past five years identifying structural challenges within the cooperative sector and preparing a comprehensive strategy focused on reforms, future opportunities and long-term growth.
Highlighting the importance of the cooperative sector, Shah said that today, nearly 20 percent of agricultural credit, 35 percent of fertilizer distribution, 31 percent of sugar production are being carried out through cooperatives.
Among the major announcements was the government's decision to establish a life insurance company under the cooperative sector. Shah said the new venture would strengthen cooperatives' participation in the insurance industry while opening new avenues for expansion. He pointed out that fertiliser cooperative IFFCO has already demonstrated the sector's potential in insurance through its joint venture with a Japanese partner.
The minister also highlighted the performance of the Bharat Taxi initiative, stating that the platform has gained encouraging traction since its launch. Building on this progress, the government plans to extend its operations to 500 cities over the next two years, significantly increasing its national footprint.
Emphasising the importance of the cooperative ecosystem, Shah noted that India has nearly 8.5 lakh cooperative societies with more than 30 crore members, making it one of the country's largest community-based economic networks. He said the ministry's establishment five years ago ended decades of neglect and gave the cooperative movement renewed direction and institutional support.
The Minister of Cooperation said that after many years, due to the initiatives of the Ministry of Cooperation, a total of nine national-level cooperative societies have been formed, including three newly created national-level cooperative societies. Through these nine societies, cooperation has been connected from the country to the village across nine different sectors. He said that just as IFFCO, KRIBHCO, Amul and NDDB have built the identity of the cooperative movement and earned it prestige at the global level, our nine national-level cooperative societies will also grow into large international-level cooperative institutions.
According to Shah, the ministry has introduced reforms aimed at improving governance, transparency and professionalism across cooperative institutions. He added that the creation of a nationwide database of cooperative societies would help streamline policymaking and accelerate the sector's expansion.
He said Tribhuvan Sahkari University will prepare trained professionals in banking, dairy, marketing, agriculture, fertilizers and other areas of cooperation. These professionals will be appointed on the basis of merit. Our objective is to introduce professional management in a phased manner from primary cooperative societies to apex institutions.
Looking beyond traditional sectors such as dairy, sugar and fertilisers, Shah said cooperatives are steadily diversifying into new economic activities. He expressed confidence that the movement would become a key contributor to India's vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
He also announced that Bharat Beej Cooperative Society is being positioned to emerge as the country's largest seed production company within the next three years. New production units will be established across every state to ensure farmers receive high-quality, certified seeds while strengthening the country's seed ecosystem.
Shah said the cooperative movement is enabling agricultural produce from villages to access global markets, creating fresh economic opportunities for farmers and rural communities. He added that when India celebrates 100 years of Independence in 2047, the cooperative movement would serve as a strong pillar of a prosperous nation.
Responding to concerns that had been raised when the Ministry of Cooperation was created, Shah clarified that the Centre's role is limited to policy formulation and not interference in subjects under the jurisdiction of state governments. He noted that even states governed by opposition parties had not accused the ministry of overstepping its constitutional mandate during the past five years.
The Foundation Day celebrations also featured the inauguration and launch of several infrastructure projects designed to strengthen the cooperative network. These included the transfer of 135 grain storage godowns with a combined capacity of 75,000 tonnes, the inauguration of 85 additional warehouses, and the virtual foundation laying for another 47 storage facilities.
Shah also laid the foundation stone for Sahakar Van projects being developed by Amul and the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF). In addition, tissue culture facilities of Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Ltd (BBSSL) were launched at Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh and Jalgaon in Maharashtra.
Technology-driven reforms also featured prominently during the event, with the announcement that 50,000 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) will be digitised into e-PACS to improve grassroots service delivery and operational efficiency.
Another important development was the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Ltd and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to strengthen India's seed systems.
Shah said that today it is very important to promote organic production. We are also concerned about the health of our 140 crore citizens and people across the world. Therefore, India’s farmers should increase organic production. The belief that stopping the use of chemical fertilizers will reduce production is a misconception. The last five years have proved that reducing the use of chemical fertilizers does not reduce production; rather, production increases and soil is also protected. We are bringing 100 percent circular economy in the sugar and dairy sectors. Through this, manure that can serve as an alternative to DAP will be produced. This indigenous manure will be cheaper than DAP and better in quality, and will provide greater benefit to fields. Such cooperative societies are being established at many places across the country.
He said, I urge dairy federations of all States to set a target of increasing the number of milk-producing farmers by at least 35 percent in the next two years. This means that new PACS will have to be formed in 35 percent more villages, primary dairy societies will have to be established and no farmer in the village should remain outside the dairy network for milk supply. In the cooperative sugar sector, we have implemented the entire system - from sugar and ethanol from molasses to bagasse, energy, pressmud, organic manure and sulphur production. This experiment has been successful. Cooperative societies have also been formed for this.
The programme also witnessed the release of model bye-laws for dairy cooperative societies and a commemorative publication documenting the Ministry of Cooperation's achievements over the last five years.
Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh said a stronger cooperative movement would directly strengthen the rural economy, particularly through the livestock sector. He noted that India remained the world's largest milk producer, with milk production reaching 248 million tonnes during 2024-25. Under the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF), investments of Rs 29,268 crore across 615 projects have created nearly 40 million litres per day of additional milk processing capacity through participation from private companies and cooperative institutions.