Sri H. D. Deve Gowda | CoopPeople | CoopWiki

Life Period: Born May 18, 1933 – Present (Active Contemporary Elder)
Region: Hassan district / Southern Karnataka
Role: Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Karnataka; chief architect of Hassan District Central Co-operative Bank.
Core Contributions: Used the cooperative framework as a primary instrument for agrarian empowerment and irrigation-linked development. He designed structural updates that pushed public financial streams to channel subsidized crop loans exclusively through Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS). He pioneered cooperative cold storage units and marketing federations, ensuring potato, coconut, and paddy growers could weather price drops without private trading rings.
Recognitions: Highly revered across regional farming unions; numerous cooperative milk chilling plants and credit societies are dedicated to his decades of advocacy.