India pitched for setting up a global financial institution like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) exclusively for the co-operative sector saying the current geopolitical environment presents a big opportunity for the co-operative movement.

Inaugurating the Global Cooperative Conference 2024 in New Delhi, organised by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and hosted by fertiliser cooperative IFFCO, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there is a need to create a global financial institution that can finance co-operatives across the world. Though he lauded ICA for the role it has played so far, Modi urged the global body to move beyond this in the future.

Big opportunity

“The current global situation presents a big opportunity for the co-operative movement. There is a need to position co-operatives the flag bearers of integrity and mutual respect worldwide. For this, there is also a need to innovate policies and strategies,” Modi said adding they should be connected to the circular economy.

Underscoring the need for promoting start-ups in co-operatives, he said that the current deposit level with co-operative banks is about ₹12 lakh crore.

He said, “For the world, co-operatives are a model but for India, it is the basis of culture, a way of life.” Reciting verses from Vedas and Upanishads, he said that it has been mentioned there (scriptures) that “we all must walk together and speak in unison...live peacefully, in coexistence.”

The government envisions a huge role for co-operatives in the country’s economic growth for which there have been several initiatives taken during the last 10 years in transforming the entire ecosystem.

“Our effort is to make co-operative societies multipurpose,” he said, adding that with the objective in mind, the government has created a separate co-operative ministry.

“India is among the fastest growing economies in the world. Our aim is to achieve high GDP growth and take the benefits to the poor. It is necessary for the world to see growth from a human-centric angle,” he said.

Inclusive growth

The Prime Minister also informed the gathering that the Indian government is facilitating to setting up of about 2 lakh additional multi-purpose co-operative societies in villages. He said with more than 8 lakh co-operative societies formed only in India, where 10 crore women and youth are actively involved, the world’s every fourth co-operative society is from India.

Highlighting that for the first time, the ICA Global Cooperative Conference was organized in India, Modi said it was an expansion of the co-operative movement in the country. He also thanked the United Nations for declaring 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives.

Co-operatives not only ensured economic empowerment but also provided a social platform for the freedom fighters, he noted. He recalled the role of Sardar Patel in uniting the farmers using milk cooperatives while giving a new direction to the freedom struggle.

“AMUL, a product of India’s freedom struggle, is one of the top global food brands,” Modi. Said and added that the co-operatives in India have travelled from idea to movement, from movement to revolution and from revolution to empowerment.