National Cooperation Policy 2025

What is the National Cooperation Policy 2025?

National Cooperation Policy 2025 is the Government of India's roadmap for the cooperative sector, released on 24 July 2025 in New Delhi by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah. It is issued by the Ministry of Cooperation, the ministry created in July 2021, and it replaces the National Policy on Cooperatives framed in 2002.

The policy is not a scheme. There is no application form, no subsidy amount and no beneficiary list attached to it. It is the document that sets direction for the laws, funding structures and technology projects the Ministry of Cooperation will pursue over the next two decades, and against which state governments are expected to align their own cooperative legislation.

According to the Press Information Bureau factsheet dated 2 August 2025, India has more than 8.44 lakh cooperative societies with over 30 crore members, roughly one-fourth of all cooperatives in the world. Of these, about 2 lakh are credit cooperatives such as Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and urban cooperative banks, and about 6 lakh are non-credit cooperatives in dairy, fisheries, housing, marketing and consumer sectors.

Why was a new cooperation policy needed?

The 2002 policy was written before mobile banking, digital public infrastructure, e-commerce and the present scale of India's dairy and fisheries value chains. The Ministry of Cooperation began drafting a replacement in September 2022.

A 48-member committee chaired by Shri Suresh Prabhu ran the exercise. The committee held 4 regional workshops and 17 meetings and collected 648 written inputs from national and state cooperative federations, primary societies, central and state government departments and academic institutions. Members were drawn from every tier and sector of the movement, so the final text reflects both credit and non-credit society concerns.

What is the vision of the National Cooperation Policy 2025?

The policy's stated vision is to contribute to India's ambition of becoming "Viksit" by 2047, following the slogan Sahkar-se-Samriddhi: prosperity through cooperation. Its mission is to create a legal, economic and institutional framework that turns cooperative enterprises into professionally managed, transparent, technology-enabled and financially viable businesses rather than dormant registrations on a registrar's file.

Three headline targets have been stated for 2034, ten years from the launch:

• Triple the cooperative sector's contribution to national GDP.
• Increase the number of cooperative societies by about 30 per cent from the present 8.3 lakh.
• Bring 50 crore citizens into active cooperative participation, up from the 30 crore members recorded today.

What are the six pillars of the National Cooperation Policy 2025?

The policy is built on six mission pillars and 16 objectives:

1. Strengthening the foundation, legal reform of state Cooperative Societies Acts, better governance, access to finance and digitalisation.
2. Promoting vibrancy, building business ecosystems, expanding cooperative exports and creating rural economic clusters.
3. Making cooperatives future-ready, technology integration, professional management and a national cooperative technology stack.
4. Promoting inclusivity and deepening reach; cooperative-led inclusive development and treating cooperation as a people's movement.
5. Entering new and emerging sectors — biogas, clean energy, warehousing, healthcare and similar fields.
6. Shaping the young generation; cooperative courses, training and employment exchanges.

What does the policy change for cooperative societies?

Legal and institutional reform. States and union territories are urged to amend their Cooperative Societies Acts and Rules to improve transparency, protect society autonomy and ease of doing business, to digitise registrar of cooperative societies offices, and to maintain real-time data in the National Cooperative Database. The policy also asks for institutional mechanisms to revive sick and dormant societies rather than leave them on the register.

Financial empowerment. National Cooperation Policy 2025 commits to preserving and strengthening the three-tier rural credit structure of PACS, District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and State Cooperative Banks (StCBs). It supports umbrella organisations for urban cooperative banks, including the National Urban Cooperative Finance and Development Corporation, and asks that cooperative banks be allowed to handle government business.

Business ecosystem. The policy pushes model cooperative villages with a multipurpose PACS at the centre, and asks every state and union territory to develop at least one. It also backs rural economic clusters around commodities such as honey, spices and tea, and branding of cooperative produce under the Bharat brand.

Technology. A national Cooperative Stack is proposed, integrating with Agri-stack and existing cooperative databases, along with onboarding of cooperatives on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and Government e-Marketplace (GeM), and cooperative incubators and Centres of Excellence for research.

Inclusion. The policy asks for active participation of women, youth, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and differently-abled persons, model bye-laws mandating gender representation and transparent governance, and cooperative awareness campaigns in schools and colleges.

New sectors. Cooperatives are encouraged into renewable energy, waste management, health and education, organic and natural farming, biogas and ethanol production, and mobile-based aggregator services for workers such as plumbers and taxi drivers.

Youth capacity building. Cooperative-focused courses in higher education institutions, a national digital cooperative employment exchange, financial and digital literacy programmes, and recruitment of trained cooperative teachers are all part of the sixth pillar.

Who is covered by the National Cooperation Policy 2025?

Covered by the policy:

• All registered cooperative societies in India, credit and non-credit, from primary societies up to national federations.
• Members of those societies, over 30 crore people today.
• State and union territory cooperation departments and registrars.
• Institutions such as NABARD, NCDC, NDDB and NFDB that implement cooperative schemes.

Who cannot apply: individuals cannot apply to the National Cooperation Policy 2025 for a personal benefit, because it is a policy document and not a benefit scheme. There is no beneficiary registration, no bank transfer and no helpline for individual claims under the policy itself. A person who wants a concrete benefit should look instead at the schemes that operate under the policy's umbrella, for example the Computerization of PACS project or the plan to establish 2 lakh new multipurpose PACS, dairy and fisheries societies, and approach the relevant society or state cooperation department.

Unregistered self-help groups, farmer producer companies registered under the Companies Act, and trusts or societies registered under other statutes are not eligible to be treated as cooperatives under this policy unless they register under a Cooperative Societies Act.

How to act on the National Cooperation Policy 2025

Because the policy has no application form, the practical route for a society or a citizen is institutional:

1. Read the policy text. Download the "New National Cooperation Policy 2025" PDF from cooperation.gov.in, uploaded on 25 July 2025, and the PIB explanatory factsheet dated 2 August 2025.
2. Check your society's bye-laws. If your PACS or primary society still uses pre-2023 bye-laws, ask the board to adopt the Government of India model bye-laws through your state registrar, which unlock more than 25 permitted business activities.
3. Register your society's data in the National Cooperative Database through your state cooperation department, since scheme targeting under the policy is driven by that database.
4. Approach the state registrar of cooperative societies for the state-level scheme, model cooperative village selection or legal amendment that implements a given pillar in your state.
5. Join or form a society if you are an individual. Membership of a registered PACS, dairy or fisheries society is the only way an individual participates in the cooperative economy this policy describes.

How will the policy be implemented and monitored?

The Ministry of Cooperation has proposed a multi-tier structure:

• An Implementation Cell inside the Ministry of Cooperation, supported by a technical Project Management Unit.
• A National Steering Committee on Cooperation Policy, chaired by the Union Cooperation Minister, for overall guidance, inter-ministerial coordination and periodic policy review.
• A Policy Implementation and Monitoring Committee, headed by the Union Cooperation Secretary, for coordination with states, clearing implementation bottlenecks and periodic evaluation.

As recorded in the PIB factsheet, a detailed action plan with timelines was still to be issued at the time of publication. Readers should therefore treat individual sub-initiatives as forthcoming rather than already funded, and check cooperation.gov.in before assuming a particular measure is operational.

What are the limits of this policy?

Cooperation is a state subject under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, except for multi-state cooperative societies. National Cooperation Policy 2025 can therefore recommend, fund and coordinate, but it cannot compel a state to amend its Cooperative Societies Act. The pace at which any pillar becomes real in a given district depends on the state cooperation department and the registrar.

The policy also does not carry a single consolidated budget line of its own. Money flows through existing and future central schemes, the PACS computerization project, National Programme for Dairy Development, Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, NCDC lending and similar routes; rather than through a "National Cooperation Policy fund".

Where to raise a question or grievance

• Ministry of Cooperation, Atal Akshay Urja Bhawan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110003.
• Website: cooperation.gov.in, which hosts the policy text, model bye-laws and scheme guidelines.
• CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in for a written grievance against the Ministry of Cooperation or a state cooperation department.
• State registrar of cooperative societies for anything concerning registration, bye-laws, audit or elections of a specific society.

No fee is payable to anyone for "enrolment under the National Cooperation Policy". Any person or agent asking for money to add a society or an individual to a policy list is making a false claim, because no such list exists.

Who is eligible

National Cooperation Policy 2025 has no personal application, so "eligibility" here means who the policy actually covers and who should engage with it through their own society or state department.

Covered under the policy

• Any cooperative society registered under a state or central Cooperative Societies Act: Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), dairy and fisheries cooperatives, urban cooperative banks, housing societies, marketing and consumer cooperatives, and national federations.
• Members of a registered cooperative society, whether the society is credit or non-credit.
• State and union territory cooperation departments, registrars of cooperative societies, and District Central Cooperative Banks / State Cooperative Banks in the three-tier credit structure.
• Sector institutions that carry out cooperative schemes, such as NABARD, NCDC, NDDB and NFDB.

Not covered, or covered only after a step

• An individual with no society membership: the policy does not register individuals, so joining or forming a cooperative society is a precondition, not an outcome of the policy itself.
• Self-help groups that have not registered as a cooperative.
• Farmer producer companies registered under the Companies Act, 2013: these are companies, not cooperatives, so the policy's cooperative-specific provisions do not apply to them unless they convert or re-register.
• Trusts or societies registered under the Societies Registration Act or a state trusts act, unless also registered as a cooperative.
• A society that has gone dormant or sick on the registrar's books: the policy asks states to set up revival mechanisms for such societies, but until a society is revived and active, it sits outside the working cooperative sector the policy measures.

How to apply

There is no form to "apply" to National Cooperation Policy 2025 itself. The realistic path is to engage through your society and the state cooperation machinery the policy directs. Treat this as the sequence for a society or its office bearers, not for an individual member.

1. Read the source documents first. Download the policy PDF from the "New National Cooperation Policy 2025" listing on cooperation.gov.in and the Press Information Bureau factsheet dated 2 August 2025, so any step you take matches what the policy actually asks for rather than a rumour about it.
2. Check the society's bye-laws against the Government of India model bye-laws. This step is offline: the board reviews the existing bye-laws, then applies to the state registrar of cooperative societies to amend them, since only the registrar's office can formally approve a bye-law change for a registered society.
3. Register or update the society's data in the National Cooperative Database. This is done through the state cooperation department, not directly on the central portal, because the database is populated from state and district registrar records.
4. Approach the state registrar for a state-level implementation step, such as inclusion in the model cooperative village programme, computerisation under the PACS computerisation project, or a bye-law amendment notification. Each state runs this on its own timeline, so the request goes to the state cooperation department office, in person or through whatever online portal that state registrar has set up.
5. An individual who wants to benefit joins or forms a cooperative society at the primary level, most commonly a PACS, dairy cooperative or fisheries cooperative, by approaching the existing society's secretary or the block/district cooperative office if no suitable society exists yet.
6. For a new sector activity the policy opens up, such as renewable energy, warehousing or organic farming, the existing society applies to diversify its business activities under the expanded bye-laws, again through the state registrar, rather than to the Ministry of Cooperation directly.

How to check your application status

Since the policy itself has no application number or portal login, "status" checking applies to the two things a society or member can actually track: a bye-law amendment request, and the society's own entry in the National Cooperative Database.

• Bye-law amendment status: follow up with the state registrar of cooperative societies' office where the amendment application was filed. Most states handle this offline through the district or block cooperative office, so a phone call or in-person visit to that office, quoting the society's registration number, is the reliable way to check.
• National Cooperative Database entry: check with the same official who submitted the society's data, typically the society secretary or the state cooperation department field officer, since this database is fed by state records rather than by individual online tracking.
• General policy implementation news: cooperation.gov.in is the source to check before assuming any specific pillar, such as the Cooperative Stack or a new central scheme under the policy, is already operational, since the detailed action plan and timelines were still pending at the time the policy was released.
• A pending grievance: if a complaint was filed through CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in against the Ministry of Cooperation or a state cooperation department, the CPGRAMS portal itself carries a status-tracking function using the grievance registration number issued at filing.

Common reasons for rejection

The policy cannot "reject" an applicant because it takes no applications, but the real, related requests that do get rejected or stalled are the bye-law amendment, the database entry, and diversification into a new business activity. The common causes are:

• Bye-law amendment sent to the wrong authority. A request submitted to the Ministry of Cooperation or filed as a general letter, instead of a formal application to the state registrar of cooperative societies, will not be processed, because bye-law approval is a state registrar function. Fix: confirm the correct registrar office for your state and resubmit the amendment application there.
• Society's existing bye-laws not aligned before applying for a new activity. A PACS that wants to add, for example, warehousing or an LPG/petrol pump business, but has not first had its bye-laws amended to include that activity, will have the diversification request rejected. Fix: complete the bye-law amendment before applying to add the new business line.
• Outdated or missing membership and governance records. If a society's general body has not met, elections are overdue, or member records are not current, the registrar can refuse to process further applications from that society until its governance is regularised. Fix: hold the pending general body meeting or election first, and file the compliance report with the registrar.
• Society not registered under a Cooperative Societies Act. A farmer producer company, trust, or informal group that applies for a cooperative-specific benefit or database entry gets turned away because it is not legally a cooperative. Fix: register formally under the state (or Multi-State) Cooperative Societies Act if the group genuinely wants to operate as a cooperative.
• Incomplete or inconsistent data submitted to the National Cooperative Database. Mismatched membership numbers, an unregistered address, or missing audit details can cause a society's database entry to be held back. Fix: reconcile the society's own records with the registrar's records before resubmission, since the database is meant to reflect verified state records rather than self-reported figures.
• Dormant or sick status not yet revived. A society already marked dormant on the registrar's books cannot access new schemes or diversification approvals until it goes through the revival mechanism the policy asks states to set up. Fix: apply for revival with the state registrar first, which typically requires a fresh general body resolution and updated compliance filings.