National Cooperation Policy 2025

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National Cooperation Policy 2025

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The National Cooperation Policy (NCP) 2025 marks a strategic roadmap for revitalizing India’s cooperative sector to meet the nation’s goal of becoming “Viksit” by 2047.

Rooted in the ethos of Sahkar-se-Samriddhi, this policy aims to build on the unique strengths of India’s cooperative tradition, promote economic democratization, and uplift rural economies through collective participation.

What is a Cooperative?

 

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons, united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically member-controlled enterprise.

The last cooperative policy, framed in 2002, was now proving to be outdated due to the radical shifts brought on by globalization, digitization, and socio-economic transformation.   Recognizing these developments, the Ministry of Cooperation (established in 2021) initiated the formulation of a new policy in September 2022.    A 48-member committee, led by Shri Suresh Prabhu, consulted stakeholders across 4 regional workshops and 17 meetings, collecting a total of 648 inputs to draft the current 2025 policy.

 

The policy is structured around six mission pillars and 16 objectives:

A robust multi-tier implementation structure is proposed:

1. Implementation Cell within the Ministry of Cooperation with technical Project Management Unit support for effective and timely implementation of the policy.
2. National Steering Committee on Cooperation Policy chaired by the Union Cooperation Minister will be constituted for overall guidance, inter-ministerial coordination, periodic policy review, etc.
3. Policy Implementation and Monitoring Committee headed by the Union Cooperation Secretary for coordination with States, troubleshooting implementation bottlenecks, periodic monitoring and evaluation, etc.

Key Highlights of the Policy:

Legislative and Institutional Reforms

1. Encourage States to amend cooperative laws (Cooperative Societies Acts and Rules) to enhance transparency, autonomy and the ease of doing business.
2. Promote digitalization of registrar offices and real-time cooperative databases.
3. Revive sick cooperatives with institutional mechanisms.

Financial Empowerment

1. Preserve and promote the three-tier Primary Agriculture Credit Societies - District Central Cooperative Bank - State Cooperative Bank credit structure.
2. Promote cooperative banks and umbrella organizations (like National Urban Cooperative Finance & Development Corporation).
3. Enable cooperative banks to handle government businesses.

Business Ecosystem Development

 

1. Model cooperative villages with multipurpose PACS as growth engines.
2. Encouraging States/UTs to develop at least one model cooperative village.
3. Develop rural economic clusters (e.g., honey, spices, tea).
4. Support branding under the ‘Bharat’ brand.

 

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