PM addresses 17th Indian Cooperative Congress in New Delhi

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• What are cooperatives?
• Regulation of Cooperatives
• 97th constitutional amendment and cooperatives
• News Summary: PM addresses 17th Indian Cooperative Congress in New Delhi
• Key highlights of the speech delivered by PM Modi

Why in news?

• On the occasion of International Day of Cooperatives, PM Modi addressed the 17th Indian Cooperative Congress at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
  • The objective of this congress is to:
    • discuss various trends in cooperative movement,
    • showcase best practices being adopted,
    • deliberate challenges being faced and
    • chalk out future policy direction for growth of India’s cooperative movement.
  • The main theme of the 17th Indian Cooperative Congress was ‘Amrit Kaal: Prosperity through Cooperation for a Vibrant India’.
• PM Modi launched E-Portals of e-Commerce website for Cooperative Marketing, and Cooperative Extension and Advisory Services Portal.

What are cooperatives?

• Cooperatives are people-centred enterprises owned, controlled and run by and for their members to realise their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations.
• The aim of a cooperative is to work together, with a goal, in one direction with the fraternity.
• Principles of cooperatives include – Voluntary and open memberships, democratic member control, autonomy and independence, members’ economic participation etc.

Regulation of Cooperatives

• The item “Cooperative Societies” is in the State List (via entry 32).
• However, multistate cooperative societies are regulated by the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002.
  • No state government official can exercise any control on multistate cooperative societies.
• In 2002, the then govt announced a National Policy on Cooperatives to support the promotion and development of cooperatives.
  • The central govt is planning to bring a new cooperative policy soon.
• In July 2021, a new ministry of cooperation was created for cooperative societies in the country.
  • It has been created with the vision of ‘Sahakar se Samriddhi’ (prosperity through cooperatives).

97th constitutional amendment and cooperatives

• The 97th constitutional amendment was passed by Parliament in December 2011.
• It dealt with issues related to effective management of co-operative societies in the country.
  • It had amended Article 19(1)(c) to give protection to the cooperatives and inserted Article 43 B and Part IX B, relating to them.
• In July 2021, Supreme Court quashed part of the 97^th amendment.
  • It held that the Parliament could not have introduced a law regulating cooperative societies within states, without first getting it ratified from half of the state legislatures.
• However, the SC stated that the act will remain valid with regard to multistate cooperative societies.

News Summary: PM addresses 17^th Indian Cooperative Congress in New Delhi

Key highlights of the speech delivered by PM Modi

• Benefits of Kisan Samman Nidhi
  • Crores of farmers are getting Kisan Samman Nidhi directly in their accounts.
  • In the last 4 years 2.5 lakh crore rupees have been transferred under this scheme in a transparent manner.
• Farmers are not burdened by the increasing global fertilizer prices
  • In India, a farmer today pays about Rs 270 for a bag of urea whereas the same bag is priced at Rs 720 in Bangladesh, Rs 800 in Pakistan, Rs 2100 in China and Rs 3000 in the USA.
  • In the last 9 years, more than Rs 10 lakh crore have been spent on just fertilizer subsidies.
• Providing the right price to the farmers for their produce
  • The government bought the farmers’ produce at an increased MSP and handed out more than 15 lakh crores to the farmers in the last 9 years.
  • On average, the Government is spending more than 6.5 lakh crores yearly on agriculture and farmers.
  • The government is making sure that every farmer in the country receives around 50 thousand rupees every year in some way or the other.
  • He informed about the recent package of Rs 3 lakh 70 Thousand crore and fair and remunerative price for the sugarcane farmers of Rs 315 per quintal.
  • This will directly benefit 5 lakh sugarcane farmers and people working in sugar mills.
• Ensuring transparency at the main cooperative societies of the primary level or PACS
  • The Prime Minister informed that the computerization of more than 60,000 PACS is taking place.
• Measures taken to meet the challenges of the sugarcane farmers
  • Sugar mills were given a package of Rs 20,000 crore for clearing farmers’ dues.
  • Ethanol blending of petrol was prioritized and ethanol worth 70,000 crore rupees was purchased from the sugar mills in the last 9 years.
  • Taxes on higher sugarcane prices were also eliminated. Talking about the tax-related reforms, he informed about the 10,000 crore rupees support to the cooperative sugar mills in this Budget for settling the old dues.
• Achievements of the PM Matsya Sampada Yojana
  • More than 25 thousand cooperative societies are working in the fisheries sector where industries like fish processing, fish drying, fish curing, fish storage, fish canning, and fish transport have been strengthened.
• Renewed focus on Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)
  • Work is going on the creation of 10 thousand new FPOs and 5 thousand have already been created.
    • FPO is an organization, where the members are farmers itself.
• Mentioned the recent PM-PRANAM scheme
  • He mentioned the recent PM-PRANAM scheme which aims to propagate chemical-free farming and promote the use of alternative fertilizers.
  • He asked the cooperative to adopt 5 villages in every district for ensuring no use of chemicals in agriculture.
• Gobardhan Scheme
  • He highlighted the Gobardhan Scheme where work is done all across the country to convert ‘waste to wealth’.
  • He informed that the government is preparing a huge network of plants which turn cow dung and waste into electricity and organic fertilizers.
• Addressing the issue of foot and mouth disease among cattle
  • The Central Government has launched a free vaccination campaign across the country for the first time where 24 crore animals have been vaccinated.
• Talked about the topic of storage
  • We are able to store less than 50 percent of the grain that we produce.
  • The central government has come out with the world’s biggest storage scheme.
  • It is planned to create 700 lakh tonne storage capacity in the next five years compared to a total of 1400 lakh tonnes in the last so many decades.
• Agriculture infrastructure
  • For agriculture infrastructure a fund of one lakh crore rupees has been created and, in the last 3 years, more than 40 thousand crore rupees have been invested in that.

Q1) What are Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)?

Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are collective entities formed by farmers to improve their bargaining power, enhance their income, and strengthen their overall position in the agricultural value chain. FPOs are registered as legal entities, typically as cooperatives or companies, and are owned and managed by farmers themselves.

Q2) What is PM Kisan Samman Nidhi?

PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a flagship government scheme in India aimed at providing direct income support to small and marginal farmers. It was launched by the Government of India in February 2019. The scheme aims to address the financial needs of farmers and supplement their income for the purchase of inputs and meeting household expenses.

Source: PM addresses 17th Indian Cooperative Congress in New Delhi | PIB | DD News | Indian Express