Minister for Cooperation Amit Shah has highlighted that both employment generation and prosperity of rural areas are possible through cooperation. Addressing the first meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Cooperation in New Delhi, Mr Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi established a separate Ministry of Cooperation for the welfare of farmers and rural areas across the country and gave the mantra of “Sahkar Se Samriddhi”.

He mentioned that the Ministry has introduced a bill for the establishment of Tribhuvan Sahkari University, and it will soon be passed by the Parliament. He added that the establishment of this university will provide technical education, accounting, administrative knowledge, and training to professionals entering the cooperative sector.

Talking about the regional disparity in the development of cooperatives in the country, Mr. Shah asserted that the government is taking special steps to bring uniform balanced development in all the states. He said that the work to develop the National Cooperative Database is almost complete. Mr. Shah added that the information about cooperative societies across the country, categorised by region, is now available with one click. He said that steps have also been taken for the computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), and in the coming times, every panchayat in the country will have PACS. The minister further expressed confidence that PACS will soon be able to sell airline tickets as well.