Grand ambitions: On India’s cooperative sector

Hypercompetitive business models that dominate the economic lives of people have undesirable social consequences. The cooperative model offers an alternative, albeit with its own imperfections. India’s Ministry of Cooperation, which completed five years on July 6, is a bold experiment in harnessing the potential of this approach. Traditionally confined largely to agriculture, cooperatives now have the opportunity and a requirement to expand into other sectors, particularly services. Cooperatives, by their very character, are relatively small-scale and fragmented; organising them, and connecting them to the broader economy that disproportionately rewards hyper-scalers is a balancing intervention — an economic, political and social imperative. The Ministry aims to transform the cooperative landscape by bringing policy coherence across agriculture, dairy, fisheries, banking, housing, consumer cooperatives, and exports. This requires collaboration with States and national federations, capacity building, wise use of digital technology, and market linkages. Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) are the foundation of rural cooperatives. Through a reformed legal framework, they have been empowered to undertake over 25 business activities, transforming them into multifaceted institutions delivering many economic services in rural India.