Grand ambitions: On India’s cooperative sector

The Ministry has facilitated new national-level multi-State cooperative societies, expanding market access for members and strengthening cooperative value chains from production to global markets. Cooperative enterprises are being encouraged to grow and compete, and a National Cooperation Policy is in the making. But there are challenges amid the opportunities. Corruption and inefficiency eroded the potential of India’s cooperative sector, and the fear of local communities and States losing control of cooperatives to a national-level mechanism needs to be assuaged. The task is in finding the sweet spot of consolidation and decentralisation; localisation and nationalisation; technology and human labour, for boosting the sector. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who holds the portfolio, is pushing the cooperative sector to expand into production and marketing, beyond agricultural credit and input facilitation, which could help mitigate the sector’s endemic crisis. A well-coordinated, yet federated, cooperative sector can offset the social, environmental and political costs of global capitalism, which is the default model of the economy. Government and business leaders worldwide are viewing cooperatives with renewed interest, as the pitfalls of hypercapitalism become pronounced. India can develop its cooperative sector as a global model.