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New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
Indian farmers: A history of cop-outs, promise of new co-op policy
In 1946, Tribhuvandas Patel, a Gandhian close to Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai, went by foot from one village to another to create a cooperative of farmers chanting the mantra of collective action and collective good. After months of campaigning, Patel collected a critical number to set up the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union. Verghese Kurien leveraged the model to establish the efficacy of cooperative action. But Kurien struggled for two decades to set up a national grid to usher in the milk revolution. India depended on imports in the 1950s. And in 2025, India's Amul is competing in the global markets and its cheese is competing with Swiss brands. The idea of cooperatives is not new and owes its origins in modern times to Welsh philanthropist Robert Owen. In India, cooperatives were visible in community ownership of resources known, for instance, as the Devarai and Vanarai movements. The formal structures came with the passage of the Cooperative Societies Act in 1904. Over the decades, cooperatives have suffered political piety and economic decimation. The history of India's cooperative movement is pock-marked with cop-outs. In 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru said everything else can wait but not agriculture. He declared cooperatives as a template for development. The success of Amul established the idea of cooperatives as a viable format, illustrated in Maharashtra where cooperatives steered change. Yet, vested political interests successfully rendered agriculture into a case of political charity and, verily, the killing fields. This week, the government unveiled a 'new cooperation policy'. Dubbed a re-birth of cooperatives, it is ambitious in its intent. The plan is to set up cooperative units in every village across the rural landscape of 6-lakh-plus villages. The mission: create an enabling legal, economic, and institutional framework to deepen the cooperative movement and facilitate cooperatives with systems and technology to emerge as economic entities for creating value. The idea is built around '6 mission pillars, 16 objectives and 82 strategic actions'.
Hans India
4 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Maha to craft its cooperation policy focusing on digitisation, increasing output
Mumbai: In the wake of a new cooperative policy announced by the Centre on Thursday, the Maharashtra government will soon formulate its own policy to consolidate state's leading position in the cooperative sector by carrying out series of reforms. A senior cooperation department officer on Friday said: 'In line with the Centre's new cooperation policy, the state policy will give emphasis on digitisation and computerisation of various cooperative bodies including the primary agricultural cooperative societies in a bid to provide seamless services. Enough attention will be paid on the use of Artificial Intelligence to further improve their functioning and streamline services. Further, the policy will focus on increasing the annual agricultural credit especially by cooperative banks from the present level of Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore by 2029. The policy will also pursue increasing the milk production to 1 crore litre per day from the present level of 60 lakh litre per day by 2029.' The officer stated that Maharashtra is one of the leading producers and contributors to the national sugar production with the presence of over 200 cooperative and private sugar factories. The government will encourage use of AI in particular to increase the per acre production and productivity of sugarcane minimising the use of water. In addition, there are about 455 urban cooperative banks in the state and the government proposes to bring in more professionalism in their functioning so that they become financially sound with less chances of entering into financial distress. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently announced that the government will amend the Cooperative Societies Act to align it with contemporary requirements. Additionally, the government will come out with a comprehensive strategy to strengthen the cooperative institutions including district central cooperative banks and urban cooperative banks. He hoped that these initiatives will empower cooperative banks. According to the cooperation department's data, there are more than 2.2 lakh cooperative societies, 21,014 non agricultural cooperative societies, 455 urban cooperative banks, 31 district central cooperative banks, over 200 cooperative and private sugar mills in the state. Short term agricultural credit, mainly for seasonal agricultural operations, is provided by primary agricultural cooperative societies. There are about 12,000 plus primary agricultural cooperative societies in the state which included 30 farmed service societies and 885 adivasi cooperative societies with about 67,000 and 7.4 lakh members respectively. The government is currently engaged in the computerisation of these primary agricultural cooperative societies to make them self-reliant under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Maharashtra govt plans to loot housing societies in the name of training them, says Congress
Mumbai: MPCC president Harshawardhan Sapkal on Thursday said it was high time that the state govt immediately halted its plan to "loot" housing societies and their members in the name of training them. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "There are plans underway to amend the Cooperative Societies Act, under which a mandatory three-hour training session will be introduced for members. It is reported each member will have to pay Rs 120, while a society will be required to pay Rs 1,000 for the session," Sapkal said. With nearly 1.2 lakh housing societies and around four crore members, the scheme will generate a large amount of money, which Sapkal said will be handed over to a private institution. "It is a new scam, it must be halted immediately," Sapkal said in a letter to the cooperation commissioner. Sapkal said it was a different kind of extortion of housing societies under the guise of training of housing society members and will be yet another major scam. "Why burden common members of the housing societies, in the name of societies. If training is to be provided, the state govt should bear the expenses," Sapkal said.
Business Recorder
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
SC highlights defects in Sindh Co-operative Societies Act
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court highlighted defects in Sindh Co-operative Societies Act, 2020, and called for correction/ amendment by the Sindh provincial legislatures for appropriate rectification. The Sindh Co-operative Societies Act, 2020, which by virtue of Section 119 of the Act, repealed the Cooperative Societies Act, 1925, enacted to consolidate and amend the law relating to cooperative societies in the Province of Sindh to facilitate the formation and working of co-operative societies for the promotion of thrift, self-help, and mutual aid among agriculturists and other persons with common economic needs, so as to bring about better living, better business, and better methods of production. The judgment of two-judge bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, which heard civil petition against the Sindh High Court (SHC) regarding immovable property dispute, noted that instead of providing right of appeal to the High Court in the Act, which is a substantive right, it is provided in the Rules. Furthermore, the nature/ categories of disputes required to be resolved or decided by the Special Court for Cooperatives are also provided in the Rules rather than being defined in the Act with a specific provision to deal with civil disputes, just as offences are properly described in the Act itself without any ambiguity. It stated; Some corrections in the nomenclature of the Act are also required in Section 104 of the Act, which articulates: '(1) No Court other than the Special Court for Cooperative Societies established under section 121 shall try offences under this Chapter and disputes referred to in section 78'. The judgment further noted; 'The Act ends at Section 119 and there is no Section 121 in the Act. While Section 78 is germane to transfer of property which cannot be sold, and the execution of an order sought to be executed under Sections 81 and 82.' The judgment said perhaps due to misprinting or inadvertence, instead of Sections 73 and 117, the wrong taxonomies of sections of the Act are printed, which is causing confusion and is open to correction/ amendment by the provincial legislatures/ government of Sindh for appropriate rectification. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The Print
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Print
How Sanchi, facing squeeze from Amul deal, became synonymous with MP's dairy legacy
But not everybody was celebrating the deal. After the Madhya Pradesh Cooperative Dairy Federation (MPCDF) entered into a five-year agreement with NDDB, he set an ambitious target of bringing about 'a milk revolution' in the state by doubling its milk production capacity over the next five years. Bhopal: When Madhya Pradesh signed an agreement with the Gujarat-based National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) last month to boost milk production in the state, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav was most gung-ho. The decision sparked fierce criticism not only from the opposition Congress party but also from dairy unions in Madhya Pradesh, who fear Amul will eclipse the local brand, Sanchi, which has long been almost synonymous with the state's dairy business. The Congress demanded a 'white paper' on the deal, with state party president Jitu Patwari asking which 'Gujarat lobby' the state government intended to benefit and whether the agreement was aimed at benefiting Gujarat's Amul at the cost of MPCDF's milk brand, Sanchi. 'The NDDB's administration of milk federations in MP would rob the local milk cooperative movement of its soul. It's not a business of milk but of democracy and self-reliance of local milk cooperative committees, too,' said Patwari. The Congress has also accused the state government of taking decisions unilaterally without consulting farmers. The government's decision also faced stiff resistance from milk unions in Madhya Pradesh. Already upset that there have been no elections in any of the unions except Indore for decades, union leaders demanded that the government fix Sanchi's problems instead of bringing in outside players. Many were angry because soon after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NDDB, the Madhya Pradesh government handed over administrative control of MPCDF to NDDB. Tawar Singh Chouhan, the last elected representative of the Indore Dairy Sangh, was among those who vehemently opposed Amul's entry into Madhya Pradesh. 'If the government had proceeded to bring in Amul with their plans to amend the Cooperative Societies Act, we were prepared to go to court. But now, when the agreement has been made with NDDB, we are still struggling to get our hands on a copy of the agreement. The day we get it, we will approach the court,' he said. He added that the Indore Dudh Sangh had sought a loan from NDDB about three months ago, but the organisation didn't help. 'We approached NDDB, but it didn't help us. So we used our own fixed deposit and put up a milk powder producing plant,' he said. Tanwar added that the Indore Dudh Sangh has been turning a profit and the government should get NDDB to first improve the functioning of Gwalior and Jabalpur, which were loss-making, instead of handing everything to them. Also Read: MP forest dept to use low-altitude helicopters to herd crop-raiding wildlife away from farmlands Operation Flood The Madhya Pradesh state dairy federation was set up in 1980 under the Operation Flood programme that promoted the setting up of farmers-run cooperatives following the success of Amul in Gujarat. It began with processing plants in Ujjain, followed by Indore and four other divisions. But over the years, the dairy federation has been hurt by poor marketing, stiff competition from Amul and low infrastructural investment. Today, Madhya Pradesh is the third-largest milk-producing state in India after Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, but ranks 11th in packet milk sales in the state. The milk cooperative sector in MP has a three-tier structure. The MPCDF is the apex body that operates the brand Sanchi under which milk and its affiliated products are sold within the state. Sanchi also manufactures ghee and other products, including ice cream. Under MPDCF come the six divisional milk unions covering the six major divisions of Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Sagar (also known as Bundelkhand). These six divisions collectively tap roughly 11,636 villages through their dairy cooperative societies (DCS) to collect milk from farmers. Through the six divisional unions, the milk cooperatives collect roughly 10 lakh litres of milk per day, of which seven lakh litres of packet milk is sold. Of the six unions, those in western Madhya Pradesh—including Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal and Sagar—turn in a meagre profit or break even, while those in Gwalior and Jabalpur have been incurring losses, with growth across all six unions plateauing. 'The cooperatives collect merely 1 percent of the total milk produced in the state. At the same time, it sells less than what it has procured, which means there needs to be work undertaken to not only increase procurement but also enhance its marketing,' a senior MPCDF official told ThePrint. From Amul to NDDB Soon after taking charge as chief minister, Mohan Yadav first chaired a meeting on 10 January 2024 with the officials of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which runs the brand Amul. The government planned on tying up with Amul to improve Sanchi. But since the two were separate brands run by state cooperatives, the move threatened Sanchi's existence. Moreover, Sanchi was already facing direct competition from Amul, a much bigger brand with a presence not just in Gujarat but across India. It has been aggressively expanding in Madhya Pradesh, which has essentially threatened Sanchi's share in both milk procurement and sales. With Amul being a state-registered cooperative in Gujarat's Anand district, it ideally required a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Madhya Pradesh government to procure milk from federations in the state. Instead, Amul has been procuring milk from farmers in Madhya Pradesh directly through its agents and a private dairy. It has also set up milk processing units with the capacity to process 5 lakh litres of milk in Ujjain, the chief minister's home district. 'There were three scenarios, either the MP milk cooperatives were fixed in-house with the state government providing for funds, the second was tying up with Amul or the third option was roping in the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which is an expert body,' a Madhya Pradesh government official told ThePrint. The road ahead for NDDB The Madhya Pradesh government isn't deterred by the criticism. It is aiming to increase the footprint of district cooperative societies across the state through NDDB. Of the 23,124 village panchayats in the state, dairy cooperative societies are active in merely 6,088 village panchayats, which is 25 percent of the total village panchayats. Sanjay Govani, general manager of NDDB, told ThePrint that NDDB is working out a yearly plan to gradually reach 9,000 panchayats in the next year and all of them over the next five years. Govani said NDDB will also be working to reach out to consumers who purchase loose milk instead of milk packets. 'In Madhya Pradesh, the sale of packet milk—including all brands combined, be it Sanchi, Amul, Mother Dairy or others—is only 10 percent of the total milk sold,' Govani said. 'The remaining market is for loose milk. If we can convey to people the benefits of pasteurised milk, that itself will tremendously increase sales of milk without cutting into each other's market,' he added. NDDB will also be hiring 50 to 60 senior managers, who would be paid through NDDB, to transform Sanchi. The minister for animal husbandry, Lakhan Patel, said NDDB would continue with the brand name Sanchi and NDDB was working to improve the quality of products while equipping the state with better infrastructure. According to Govani, market studies by NDDB show a strong attachment to the Sanchi brand in Madhya Pradesh, which NDDB is working to deliver upon. The Madhya Pradesh government has partnered with NDDB to expand the cooperative brand of Sanchi beyond the state. But many others are still skeptical of NDDB's capacity to transform Madhya Pradesh's milk cooperatives. 'One of the biggest problems faced by Sanchi was its poor marketing. It is easier to increase village committees and collect milk, but we are yet to see how NDDB plans to increase milk sales across MP over the next five years that it will be holding operations,' said Girish Paliwal, who is affiliated with the Bhopal Milk Union. 'It is too soon to comment; for now, it is just wait and watch.' (Edited by Sugita Katyal) Also Read: Madhya Pradesh DGP's order directing cops to salute MP, MLAs draws censure from both Congress & BJP
