Overview
Despite India being home to almost 25% of total cooperative societies in the world and with history of cooperative movement in India dating back to more than a century, there was no comprehensive, authentic and updated data repository in the country about cooperatives, their activities, members, financial details, etc.
The Ministry of Cooperation was constituted on 6th July, 2021 with a mandate, inter alia to strengthen cooperative movement in the country & deepening its reach up to grassroots; and creation of appropriate policy, legal & institutional framework to help cooperatives realize their potential. To fulfil this mandate, the process for developing a National Cooperative Database was initiated by the Ministry in consultation with the State/UT Governments, National Cooperative Federations, Central line Ministries and all other Stakeholders at various levels.
The objective of developing National Database of Cooperatives is to provide a single point access to authentic and updated information on about 8 lakh cooperatives of various sectors across the country. The National Cooperative Database capture data on several parameters related to cooperatives i.e. location details, no. of members, economic activities, their upward & downward linkages, level of operations, use of ICT, employment, inputs & output, financial & non-financial transactions, assets & liabilities, etc.
Benefits of National Cooperative Database (NCD)
The database will function as the main planning tool for Central Ministries, State Governments, Cooperative Federations, Cooperators and Sectoral Institutions like NABARD, etc. for cooperative sector. It would facilitate policy making, improve governance and transparency. The database would also bring synergy among various databases maintained by Central line Ministries and State Governments. By adopting latest IT Tools and Management Information System (MIS), NCD would be available on real-time basis to all stakeholders and can easily be adopted for various activities over a period of time. It would also help in identifying gaps/vacuums in geographical distribution of cooperatives in the country and establishing upward/downward linkages of cooperative societies (Primary to Apex).
Consultations with stakeholders
The need of creating comprehensive and updated database was discussed and agreed at various forums, including National Cooperative Conference held in September, 2021 and National Conference of State Cooperation Ministers & Principal Secretaries (Cooperation)/RCS of States held in August, 2022, which was inaugurated by Hon’ble Union Minister of Home and Cooperation.
To begin with, data attributes/fields of database were finalised after extensive discussions and consultations with various stakeholders viz. State/UT RCS, National Cooperative Federations and other Stakeholders at various levels (Primary to Apex). Draft Data Fields were circulated to all stakeholders for further inputs/suggestions. In response, 53 stakeholders sent their inputs/suggestions;
- States/UTs-28
- National Cooperative Federations-10
- Central line Ministries-9
- Cooperative Institutes-6
A brief presentation on National Cooperative Database was made before Hon’ble Cooperation Minister on 22nd July, 2022, and based on guidance received from Hon’ble Minister, sector specific data fields were further developed. Ministry of Cooperation conducted a series of workshops with stakeholders (from Primary to Apex Cooperative Society) during Aug-Sept, 2022 for identifying sector-specific data fields/parameters. Hon’ble Cooperation Minister accorded in principle approval of the project during a presentation before him on 30th September 2022.
Setting-up of organisational structure for developing database
The overall work is being carried under the guidance of Secretary (Cooperation). Following structure has been put in place;
- Steering Committee under Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Coop) & CRCS was constituted for monitoring of progress and implementation of strategy for development of National Cooperative Database. The members of the Committee are from MoC, PMG, NCDC(LINAC), NCUI & AICTE.
- Advisory Committee: under Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Coop) & CRCS was constituted for getting inputs from various stakeholders such as State RCS, National Cooperative Federations and Statutory Bodies (NABARD, NDDB, NFDB).
- Project Management Group (PMG) PMG was set up under chief project officer and Ex-DDG(NIC) who is responsible for architecting the portal for national cooperative database. PMG has designed and developed the software solution and supporting its implementation across states.
- Database Cell in MOC A Database Cell was set-up under supervision of DDG (Database) for coordinating all administrative activities of National Cooperative Database.
Regular meetings of Steering/Advisory Committee and PMG were held to sort out technical & administrative issues, on priority basis, at every stage of database development. Secretary (Cooperation) also reviewed the progress regularly and held frequent meetings with stakeholders, including State RCS and National Cooperative Federations & Steering Committee.
Funding of Project
The expenditure on procuring hardware & software, engaging IT Professional & interns/DEO, etc. for National Cooperative Database is being met through Cooperative Education Fund (CEF). The total expenditure is estimated to be Rs. 8 Crores.
Data collection for Database in phased manner
Keeping in view the diverse nature and size of cooperative sector, it was decided to create the database in a phased manner.
- Phase-I of National Cooperative Database Under Phase-I, the mapping of about 2.64 lakh primary cooperative societies of three sectors i.e. Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), Dairy and Fisheries was completed in February, 2023. Under this phase, services of 560 local interns enrolled on portal of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) were taken for data entries at District Registrar Offices. The internship was for a period of 45 days and interns were paid a lump-sum amount of Rs. 15000/- as stipend.
- Phase-II of National Cooperative Database Under this Phase, Mapping of National Cooperative Societies/Federations along with their General Body Members was completed. Further, their downward linkages with State Federations, District Unions and Primary Cooperative were also established. The data related to StCB, DCCB, UCB, SCARDB, PCARDB, Sugar Cooperative Mills, State Federations, District Unions and MSCS were collected directly from cooperative society or through their National/State Federations.
- Phase-III of National Cooperative Database Under this Phase, Ministry of Cooperation initiated the process of extending the National Cooperative Database to remaining more than 5 lakh cooperative societies working in all other sectors in May, 2023, through the Office of RCSs of State/UTs. Almost all States/UTs, except Kerala & Manipur, completed (97%) data entries under National Cooperative Database.
Provisions of Data Validations and Regular Updation
Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) has been developed for data validation and regular updation by District Registrar Office under overall supervision of State RCS.
