Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah will inaugurate a ‘National Seminar on Delivery of CSC services through Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)’ at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 21^st July, 2023. Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw will also grace the occasion. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), under the Ministry of Cooperation, is organizing this Seminar in collaboration with the CSC. During the program various aspects related to CSC services by PACS will be discussed. Till now, 17,000 PACS have been onboarded on CSC portal, out of which 6,000 PACS are going to start providing services as CSCs.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and guidance of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah, the Ministry of Cooperation has taken several initiatives to strengthen PACS throughout the country, which will benefit crores of farmers in the country. PACS are the backbone of cooperatives in the country, and, delivery of CSC services through PACS in rural areas will increase employment opportunities. PACS form basis of the country's cooperative movement, and, that is why the Modi government is making continuous efforts to improve their viability. The Ministry of Cooperation has a wide network of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) across the country to provide credit services to the villagers.

Modi government is working on computerisation of PACS in thr country, for the first time. The purpose of this exercise is to bring transparency in the system and improve financial discipline of PACS. To strengthen PACS, Modi government is making National Cooperative University, National Cooperative Policy and Cooperative Database. By making PACS multi-purpose, PM Modi has taken an important step towards increasing the income of farmers. Multistate Cooperative Societies have been formed for seeds, marketing of organic farming and export of farmers’ produce.

The model bylaws, prepared by the Ministry of Cooperation after consultation with all stakeholders, will enable PACS to diversify its business by undertaking more than 25 different economic activities, including, dairy, fisheries, godowns, custom hiring centers, fair price shops, LPG/diesel/petrol distributorship, etc.

Further, in consultations with the Ministries concerned, PACS have also been enabled to function as Common Service Centres (CSCs), form FPOs, apply for LPG Distributorship, retail petrol/ diesel pump outlets, open Jan Aushadhi Kendras, work as fertilisers distribution centres etc. Delivery of CSC services through PACS is a big step towards strengthening them, which will allow PACS to provide facilities like Common Service Centre in the country and its benefits will reach crores of people living in rural areas in the country. These village-level cooperative credit societies act as the last mile link in the three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCBs). PACS provide short term and medium term agriculture loans to farmers for various agriculture and farming activities.

Minister of State for M/o Cooperation, Shri BL Verma, Secretary, M/o Cooperation, Shri Gyanesh Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma and Managing Director, CSC-SPV, Shri Sanjay Rakesh will also be present during the event. A short film on ‘Delivery of CSC Services by PACS’ will also be screened during the event.

CSC - SPV had taken an initiative in 2019 with the Government of Odisha to bring PACS on CSC's network. Subsequently, PACS in Assam and Tamil Nadu were trained to deliver CSC services at the request of the PACS union. On 01^st September, 2021, on the request of the Government of Jharkhand, CSC -SPV entered into a partnership with the Registrar, Jharkhand Cooperative Societies, to integrate PACS into the CSC network. On 02^nd February, 2023, in the august presence of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah and Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, an agreement was signed to provide services provided by CSCs to PACS. In the first phase of the said agreement, 63,000 PACS are being trained to work as CSCs, and, in the second phase, another 30,000 PACS will be trained.

The Common Services Centres (CSCs) is one of the flagship programs under the Digital India Programme of the Modi government. Today, there are over 5,20,000 CSCs are functioning across the country as delivery points of government and public services for the rural population in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. CSC e- Governance Services India Limited is a Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV) incorporated in the year 2009 under the Companies Act, 1956 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY), Government of India, to monitor the implementation of Common Services Centers (CSCs).

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RK / AY / AKS / RR / AS