Shah Launches Rs 225 Cr Projects for Cooperative Sector Digitalization

New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI) Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched computerisation programmes for agriculture and rural development banks and Registrar of Cooperative Societies at an estimated cost of Rs 225 crore and said the digitisation efforts will help improve efficiency, transparency and accountability in their working.

The launch of computerisation projects for Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) and Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCSs) of states and Union Territories was organised by Ministry of Cooperation in collaboration with National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).

Shah said the projects will modernise and enhance the efficiency of the cooperative sector by bringing the entire cooperative ecosystem on a digital platform.

"This will help in improving transparency and accountability in the cooperative sector," the minister said.

Shah said the total cost of computerisation will be Rs 225 crore, of which Rs 95 crore would be spent on computerisation of RCSs.

The computerisation of ARDBs will help farmers get medium and long-term loans, the minister said, adding the long-term finance was necessary to modernise the agriculture sector.

Shah said the plan is to link these ARDBs to PACSs to facilitate long-term loans to farmers smoothly.

Under the first initiative, as many as 1,851 units of ARDBs in 13 states/UTs will be computerised and linked to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) through a common national software.

Shah pointed out that ARDBs are present only in 13 states/UTs and said there is a need to expand it to other states as well.

The initiative will increase the operational efficiency, accountability and transparency in ARDBs by standardising business procedures through a Common Accounting System (CAS) and Management Information System (MIS).

Furthermore, the initiative aims at reducing transaction costs, facilitating loan distribution to farmers, and enabling real-time data access for better monitoring and assessment of schemes.

The move will benefit small and marginal farmers connected with ARDBs for credit and related services through Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACSs).

Under the second major initiative, the aim is to computerise offices of RCSs in states and Union Territories.

It will motivate RCS offices for paperless functioning and to implement an IT-oriented workflow in accordance with the cooperative acts and regulations of states and Union Territories.

The computerisation will also lead to better efficiency, accountability and transparency in RCS offices, setting up analytics and MIS and ensuring linkage with the national database.

As part of the major initiatives of Ministry of Cooperation, Shah said as many as 63,000 PACSs are already being computerised and linked to Nabard through Common National Software.

PACSs are also being enabled to start digital services by taking them on board as Common Service Centres (CSCs).

The ministry has set up National Cooperative Database, containing data of more than 8 lakh cooperative societies, and this database will be launched soon and made available to all stakeholders.

More than 1,200 participants attended the event, including senior officials of all states and Union Territories, secretaries of cooperative departments and Registrars of Cooperative Societies, presidents of all state cooperative agriculture and rural development banks (SCARDBs), representatives of primary cooperative agriculture and rural development banks (PCARDBs) and ARDB units.