Union Home & Cooperation Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the EARTH Summit 2025 in Gandhinagar and also launched more than 13 new services and products under the ‘Sahakar Sarathi’ initiative. The new offerings include Digi KCC, Campaign Sarathi, Website Sarathi, Cooperative Governance Index, ePACS, the World’s Largest Grain Storage Application, Shiksha Sarathi and Sarathi Technology Forum.

Addressing the summit yesterday, Mr Shah said this second edition is part of a series of three EARTH Summits aimed at strengthening the rural economy and finding result-oriented solutions for rural development. He said major issues linked to four ministries associated with the rural economy would be resolved through deliberations held across the summits, culminating in a policy framework at the third meeting in Delhi next year.

Mr Shah said that Mahatma Gandhi had emphasised that India’s development vision must keep villages at the centre, but this principle was neglected after Independence. He said, Agriculture, animal husbandry and cooperatives remained overlooked for decades, but a shift began in 2014 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, placing rural development at the core of national progress.

Mr Shah said a plan has been put in place to establish a cooperative institution in every Panchayat in the coming years, expand cooperative membership to more than 50 crore people and increase the sector’s contribution to GDP. When these goals are achieved, he said, no citizen-whether a rural woman engaged in animal husbandry or a small farmer-will be left behind.

Mr Shah said the Ministry of Cooperation has launched ‘Sahakar Taxi’, with more than 51 thousand drivers registering during the trial phase. He said the aim is to build the country’s largest cooperative taxi company.