Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah today replied to the discussion on the Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill 2025 in Lok Sabha in the Parliament. Subsequently the bill was passed by the lower house.

Replying to the discussion, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that cooperation sector touches lives of all families in the country in some way or the other. He said that every village has some or the other cooperative unit engaged in agricultural development, rural development or generating employment thereby contributing to the development of the country. Shri Shah said that after 75 years of independence, today the country is getting its first cooperative university. He said that this bill will strengthen the rural economy, develop the ecosystem of self-employment and small entrepreneurship, increase social inclusion and will increase opportunities to set new standards in innovation and research. He said that in a way, the whole country will get a new cooperative leadership inspired by the spirit of cooperation and equipped with modern education.

Shri Amit Shah said that it was decided to name this cooperative university as Tribhuvan Sahkari University. He said that Tribhuvan Das Patel was among many others who laid the foundation of co-operatives in India under the guidance of Sardar Patel. He said that it is the cooperative institution Gujarat State Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which is popularly known as Amul. He said that the journey of Amul which began in 1946 with 250 litres of milk in a town of Gujarat, has today become India's largest dairy brand and stands before the world. Shri Shah said that in 2003, the turnover of Amul was Rs 2882 crore which has crossed Rs 60 thousand crore today. He said that the opposition is protesting because there is no university in the name of a particular family; they do not know that Tribhuvan Das Patel was also their leader.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that in 2014, a new government under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi came to power and the 10-year period of the Modi government will be written in golden letters for the welfare of the poor of the country. He said that in these 10 years, houses were built for the poor, toilets were built, drinking water was provided to the poor, free ration of 5 kg free food grains for the poor, gas connections for the poor, free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh, and electricity for all in the country has been accomplished. He said that in the past 10 years, 25 crore people of the country have been brought above poverty line. Shri Shah said that what was essential for living for the poor people of the country, who used to spend their lifetime for it, were provided to them by Prime Minister Modi in the past 10 years. He said that now the question before these crores of people is how can they grow further, how to start a business and contribute to the development of the country with no capital. Shri Shah said that the only way to connect a person without capital with entrepreneurship is Cooperation. He said through Cooperation crores of people with small capital are coming together to start their businesses and are living with dignity by generating self-employment.

Shri Amit Shah said that in a country like India with a population of over 130 crore, employment is also a big indicator of the health of the country's economy, along with GDP. He said that cooperatives are the only sector that connects 130 crore people with the country's development through self-employment and also protects their dignity. Shri Shah said that Prime Minister Modi formed the Ministry of Cooperatives three and a half years ago, fulfilling the decades-long demand of farmers, villagers, and cooperative leaders. He said that after the formation of the Ministry of Cooperatives, a new chapter of development of cooperatives has started.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that today there are 8 lakh cooperative societies in India and 30 crore people are their members. In a way, every fifth person in the country is associated with cooperatives, but no effort was made for its development in the past 75 years. Shri Shah said that cooperatives were running unevenly across the country and anomalies had started to appear in the cooperative movement. He said that it was the reason for Modi ji to established the Cooperative Ministry. Since its establishment, the Ministry of Cooperatives has done a lot of work in the last three and a half years. He said that to develop cooperatives, a national cooperative database was prepared together with all the states and today information about cooperatives of every state, district and village is available in this database.

Shri Amit Shah said that 2 lakh new Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) will be formed in the country and there will not be a single Panchayat in the country where there will not be a PACS. He said that the Modi government decided to change the by-laws of PACS and the entire country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Northeast to Dwarka accepted the model by-laws issued by the Centre. This enabled linking of more than 25 economic activities with PACS, improvements in the election process and development of a common accounting software, available in all languages ​so that it can cater to all. He said that 43 thousand PACS Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been established in the country where benefits and facilities of more than 300 schemes of the Central and State Government are available. Shri Shah said that today 36 thousand PACS are working as PM Samridhi Kendras in the country, 4 thousand PACS have been established as Jan Aushadhi Kendras and 400 PACS are also running petrol pumps.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that the Modi government started the world's largest grain storage scheme and so far 576 PACS have started the work of building godowns. Work on 11 of these has been completed and now the paddy and wheat purchased by PACS is being stored there. He said that more than 67 thousand PACS of the country have been connected with computers, software and data storage. Today, out of these 67,930 PACS, 43,658 PACS are working through computers. Now their accounts are reconciled in the evening, along with online audit, all business is also done online. He said that computerization has brought a revolution in the cooperative sector.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that with the creation of 2 lakh PACS, one in every Panchayat, the cooperative movement of our country will once again stand in a balanced manner. He said that more than 550 cooperative societies have been onboarded for procurement on Government e Marketing (GeM). Shri Shah said that during the previous governments, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) faced a lot of injustice in Income Tax. The Modi Government has reduced the surcharge on income tax of cooperative societies from 12 to 7 percent, reduced MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) from 18.5 to 15 percent, exempted from income tax penalty on transactions of less than two lakh rupees and reduced the rate for manufacturing cooperative societies from 30 to 15 percent. He said that the limit of cash deposit for PACS and others has been increased from 20 thousand to 2 lakh rupees. Along with this, the limit of exemption from TDS has been increased from one crore rupees to three crore rupees.

Shri Amit Shah said that the Modi government has formed three new national-level cooperative societies which will work to improve backward and forward linkages. He said that about 8 thousand PACs have been associated with the National Cooperative Export Limited (NCEL) and through these, our farmers' products are being exported abroad. So far, 12 lakh tonnes of materials have been sold in the global markets through NCEL and the profit is being deposited directly into the farmers' accounts. Shri Shah said that along with this, our traditional seeds are being preserved by preserving and collecting them through the Bharatiya Seed Cooperative Society Limited (BBSSL). Organic products are being certified as Bharat Brand through the National Cooperative Organic Limited (NCOL). He said that 100% organic products are being made available across the country under the name of 'Bharat Brand'.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that when a small farmer or a rural person takes a loan, he also repays it, with interest. He said that this is why the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has done a business of Rs 90 thousand crore with zero NPA. Shri Shah said that NCDC has given 44 sea trawlers to the fishermen of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Rs 10 thousand crore has been given to 48 cooperative sugar mills. About 3 thousand Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) and one thousand 70 Fisherman Farmer Producer Organizations (FFPO) have been formed. He said that NCDC has earned a profit of Rs 800 crore this time. NCDC has succeeded in increasing the loan and keeping zero NPA and has also increased the profit from Rs 100 crore to Rs 800 crore.

Shri Shah said that to ensure flow of funds in the cooperative sector, an initiative of 'Cooperation Among Cooperatives' was undertaken in Panchmahal and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat. Under this, it was ensured that the members of every cooperative institution and cooperative society necessarily have their bank accounts in cooperative banks. Shri Shah said that he too has opened his account in a cooperative bank. He said that due to the initiative of 'Cooperation Among Cooperatives', deposits in banks in Gujarat have increased by about Rs 8000 crore. Due to all these steps, people's confidence in cooperative banks has increased.

Shri Amit Shah said that earlier, Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) were not allowed to open new branches, but now they have permission from Reserve Bank of India to open up to 10 percent new branches on their own. Earlier, they were not allowed to provide 'doorstep banking' i.e. banking facilities to people at their homes, but now Urban Cooperative Banks can provide the facility of 'doorstep banking'. Shri Shah said that earlier, Urban Cooperative Banks were not allowed 'one time settlement', but now they have been enabled like nationalized and scheduled banks to do 'one time settlement'. Earlier, issues of cooperative banks were not entertained by RBI, but now a nodal officer has been appointed with the duty to hear the problems of cooperative banks and provide solutions. The loan limit of home loans given by Urban Cooperative Banks has been doubled. Permission has also been given to give loans to commercial real estate. He said that a lot of work has also been done to strengthen non-scheduled banks.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that an umbrella organization of National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies Limited (NAFCUB) has been formed. He said that whenever a cooperative bank becomes weak, umbrella organization will finance it and save it from closure. Modi ji has also increased the insurance of depositors from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, this has increased the confidence in cooperative banks.

Shri Amit Shah said that for the last several years, big cooperative leaders have been Agriculture Ministers, but the income tax problem faced by cooperative sugar mills was not resolved.  He said that Shri Narendra Modi Ji ended the problem of income tax assessment forever in 2022, soon after he formed a new Ministry of Cooperation. The pending demand of Rs 4600 crore of sugar mills was met and the move put a break to the cycle of annual demand generation by the sugar mills of Rs 8 thousand crores. Cooperative sugar mills have hardly got such a huge benefit after independence. He said that a loan of Rs 10 thousand crore was sanctioned to 84 mills. Cooperative sugar mills were given priority in the Ethanol Blending program. A finance scheme was also started for Molasses based ethanol plant and multi feed plant. Our government reduced the GST rate on Molasses from 28 percent to 5 percent. Shri Shah said that the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office was computerized, Registrar offices in the states and branches of Rural Development Banks are being computerized for which the financial assistance is being provided by the Central Government. 

Union Minister of Cooperation said that under White Revolution 2.0, a target has been set to increase the procurement of milk from the current 660 lakh liters per day to 1000 lakh liters per day in 2028-29. He said that in the last three years, India has become the largest milk producing country in the world. One-fourth of the total milk production of the world is produced in India. In the year 2023-24, it has increased to about 24 crore tonnes. In the year 2014-15, this figure was 14.6 crore tonnes. He said that in the last 10 years, milk production has increased from 14.6 crore tonnes to 24 crore tonnes. Today there are 23 national level and 240 district level unions, 28 marketing dairies have been formed and primary milk production committees have also been formed in 2.30 lakh villages.

Shri Amit Shah said that now cooperative dairies are working on the principles of circularity. They will also provide animal feed to farmers who sell milk privately. Cooperative dairies will also vaccinate animals. Cooperative dairies will collect their dung and make gas. When the animal dies, its skin and bones will also be sent to the market through cooperative dairies with the earning coming back to the farmers directly. Work has already started on all these projects at a cost of Rs 10 thousand crore. Shri Shah said that more than 70 percent of the members associated with the dairy sector are women who will be empowered due to economic benefits in sector.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that the previous governments did nothing on the demand for procurement of pulses at the Minimum Support Price (MSP). But Modi Government decided to purchase three pulses from farmers at 100 percent MSP. Shri Shah said that those farmers who get themselves registered through NAFED and NCCF websites are entitled to get this facility. He said similar facility is also extended to maize farmers, who on registering themselves on NAFED and NCCF websites, can offload their 100 per cent produce to the Government at MSP.

Shri Amit Shah said that for the first time we have created a cooperative ranking framework which will provide a dedicated system of performance evaluation in the cooperative sector, which has seven major parameters. He said PACS, dairy, fisheries, urban cooperative, housing credit and Khadi and Village Industries Committees will be covered under the scheme. Now awards for excellence will be given at the district, state and national level for promoting cooperatives. The cooperative entities will be able to get loans from cooperative banks according to their ranking.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Modi's 'Sahkar se Samriddhi' is not just a slogan, the Ministry of Cooperation has worked day and night in three and a half years to realise it. He said that in a few months, a very big cooperative taxi service will be started, in which registration of two wheelers, taxis, rickshaws and four wheelers will be possible and the profit will go directly to the driver. He said that soon a cooperative insurance company is also going to be formed which will do the work of insurance in the cooperative system of the country. Shri Shah said that in a short time it will become the largest insurance company in the private sector.

Shri Amit Shah said that the work of registering an institute of Cooperative studies in any part of the country will be done after checking its status. He said that in view of the development and expansion of the cooperative sector, trained human resources are needed and Tribhuvan Sahkari University will work to fulfill this need. After the formation of a cooperative university, its diploma and degree holders will get jobs. Through this university, we will make a big contribution to the domestic as well as global value chain. New age cooperative culture will also start from this university. He said that there are thousands of cooperative education training institutes spread across the country, but they lack standardised course curriculum. We have started the work of designing the course keeping in mind the needs of the cooperative sector even before the university was formed. There will also be degree, diploma courses in the university and PhD degrees will also be given. There will also be short duration certificate courses for the existing employees.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that through this bill, cooperative principles and cooperative activities will be expanded. The cooperative sector will benefit from new technology. Research and innovation will also increase and the cooperative sector will be strengthened on the ground. This will also strengthen the rural economy. Shri Amit Shah said that being associated with the name of a great man like Tribhuvan Das, this cooperative university will prove to be a high-quality university. It will work to produce excellent cooperative workers in the country.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that the country's first university dedicated to the cooperative sector will be built 75 years after independence and when it will have the capacity to diploma with graduation, degree or certificate every year to about 8 lakh candidates, there will be an infusion of new blood in the cooperative movement. Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that he has been associated with cooperatives since the age of 18 and has experienced its strengths and weaknesses. He said that Modi Ji is laying the foundation of a prosperous India and this bill will provide a strong structure in it. Shri Shah said that Tribhuvan Das Patel Ji's vision was that profits in the cooperative sector should reach every poor woman, hence this bill is named after him.

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