Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: INDIA is witnessing a resurgence of its cooperative culture, with grassroots institutions emerging as powerful engines of socio-economic empowerment and inclusive growth. A remarkable example of the transformative power of cooperatives in India comes from Rajasthan’s Borkheda Gram Seva Sahakari Samiti.
Established in 1954 with just 15 members and a share of only Rs. 30, the society has grown into a thriving institution with over 8,299 members and share of Rs 107.54 Lakh today – more than 70 pc of whom belong to marginalised communities. Over the decades, it has evolved far beyond its agricultural roots. It now operates a mini bank with three branches and, in 2018-19 alone, it mobilised deposits worth Rs 4.55 crore.
Nationwide movement
Its e-Mitra Plus centre provides critical citizen services ranging from insurance and Aadhaar-linked facilities to caste and income certificates and utility bill payments. The cooperative society has been honoured with the NCDC National Cooperative Excellence Award (2010) and the NCDC Zonal Award (2018). This transformation is not an isolated case – it is part of a nationwide movement to revitalise the cooperative sector.
At present, India has more than 8.44 lakh cooperative societies spanning 30 sectors, including credit, housing, marketing, dairy, fisheries, and more – functioning as essential instruments for rural credit, self-employment, and collective economic strength.
The momentum of growth is visible even among children in Gujarat. The Bal Gopal Savings and Credit Cooperative Society, based in Sabarkantha, is the country’s only cooperative exclusively for children aged 0-18. Through this unique ‘Baal Bachat Sanskar’ model, children are given saving boxes, and the amounts collected each month are deposited into their bank accounts at 6 pc annual interest. As of March 2024, 19,020 child members from 335 villages have saved Rs 17.47 crore.
The wave of transformation began in 2021 with the creation of the Ministry of Cooperation. In just four years, it has launched 61 structured initiatives designed to modernise, digitise, and diversify cooperative societies. Among the most transformative have been sanctioning of the proposal for the computerisation of 73,492 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), the onboarding of 59,920 PACS to a unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform, and the formal rollout of multipurpose cooperative models under new by-laws. In Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, the Arakandanallur PACCS offers a powerful example of digital preparedness.
When devastating floods destroyed its physical infrastructure and paper records, the society’s prior adoption of PACS computerisation and cloud-based storage enabled swift recovery. Staff accessed member and transaction data remotely, and services resumed quickly. Similar is the case of the Kharsai Vividha Karyakari Society in Maharashtra. Burdened earlier by inefficiencies and paper-based accounting, it adopted fullscale ERP systems under the PACS computerisation programme. Since then, its performance has improved across all metrics.
Massive expansion
The Government’s strategy also includes massive expansion. As of July 22, 2025, 23,173 new multipurpose PACS, dairy, and fisheries cooperatives have been registered. These PACS are being designed to handle grain storage, fertiliser and seed distribution, LPG and petrol pumps, and Jan Aushadhi Kendras, based on a single ERP-based digital architecture. The vision is clear: one cooperative in every village, functioning as a multiservice hub. The digital shift isn’t limited to finance.
As of March 31, 2025, 667 cooperative societies have been registered as buyers on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM). Efforts are also being made to onboard cooperatives as sellers to boost rural artisans’ access to national markets. By March 31, 2025, 2,986 transactions have taken place by these cooperative societies, amounting to Rs 319.02 crore.
Moving from the digital to the sustainable, the Dhondi Solar Energy Producer Cooperative Society in Gujarat’s Kheda district is a notable example. Registered in collaboration with Tata Consulting and IWMI, it is India’s first cooperative solar energy society.
