NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi – displaying his characteristic out-of-box thinking -- has created a new 'Ministry of Cooperation', looking to provide added impetus to the cooperative movement in the country.
The creation of the ministry, on the even of the Cabinet reshuffle, indicates the Centre's commitment to community-based developmental partnership, says a press release from the Cabinet Secretariat.
"Sahkar se samriddhi" (Prosperity from cooperation) is the vision of the Ministry of Cooperation, the statement said, hailing the move as "historic".
"This ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal, and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. It will help deepen co-operatives as a true people-based movement reaching up to the grassroots," the release said.
A cooperative-based economic development model is very relevant to India, with each member working with a spirit of responsibility, according to the government. This new ministry, it said, will work to streamline processes to ensure the ease of doing business for cooperatives and enable development of multi-state co-operatives.
The Modi Government's decision to set up a new Ministry of Co-operation follows the commitment Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had made in her Budget speech this year.
While presenting the Budget, she had said: "The government is committed to the development of multi-state cooperatives and will provide all support to them. To further streamline the 'ease of doing business' for cooperatives, I propose to set up a separate administrative structure for them."
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