On 19th September 2024, Union Minister Amit Shah, Ministry of Cooperation (MoC) launched the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on ‘White Revolution 2.0’ during the National Conference on the initiatives taken by the MoC in the 1st 100 days of the 3rd term of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government held in New Delhi, Delhi.
- During the main session of the Conference, Union Minister Amit Shah launched ‘100 days initiatives’ under the theme of “Sahkar-se-Samriddhi” , to strengthen and expand the cooperative sector, and has potential to benefit about 13 crore farmers across the country.
- He also launched SOPs for ‘Cooperation among Cooperatives’ initiative and ‘Margdarshika’.
Key People: Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying (MoFAH&D); Union Minister of State (MoS) Muralidhar Mohol, MoC; and Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Secretary, MoC were present at the event.
SOPs for White Revolution 2.0:
i.It is a comprehensive initiative aimed to empower women farmers and create job opportunities as well as to boost the Indian dairy sector.
ii.It will mainly focus on 4 key areas i.e. empowering women farmers, increasing the local milk production, strengthening dairy infrastructure, and promoting dairy exports.
iii.The key target of GoI under White Revolution 2.0 is to increase milk production by dairy cooperative societies by 50% i.e. from the current 660 lakh litres per day to 1,000 lakh litres, over the next 5 years.
iv.It involves setting up and strengthening of 1 lakh new and existing district cooperative societies, Multi-purpose Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (M-PACS), which will be linked to milk routes with essential infrastructure.
v.For the initial phase, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will provide funding from its own resources, providing Rs 40,000 per M-PACS to 1,000 M-PACS.
Background:
The White Revolution(Operation Flood) was launched in 1970 by the NDDB under the leadership of Dr. Verghese Kurien, often referred to as the “Father of the White Revolution” to increase milk production and address milk scarcity.
SOPs for Cooperation among Cooperatives:
i.Union Minister Amit Shah announced the nationwide expansion of the “Cooperation among Cooperatives” initiative, after the successful implementation in Gujarat.
ii.This initiative has 3 key components including distribution of Rupay – Kisan Credit Cards(KCCs) to dairy farmers, distribution of micro-Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to dairy cooperatives and opening of the account of the cooperative societies and their members in cooperative banks.
Background:
i.During the initial phase, MoC conducted experiments in two districts of Gujarat, Panchmahal and Banaskantha under Cooperation among Cooperatives initiative. It decided to open bank accounts of all the institutions of the cooperative sector in the cooperative banks.
- Also, debit and credit were distributed to women associated with the Primary Cooperative Society and Milk Producers Committee.
ii.So far, over 4 lakh bank accounts have been opened in cooperative banks and more than Rs 550 crore has been deposited in just two districts of Gujarat. Also, 1,732 micro ATMs were opened and 20,000 new credit cards were issued.
iii.Although, the initiative was not completely launched in Gujarat, but over 9 lakh accounts have been opened so far and deposits of about Rs 4,000 crore have increased in cooperative banks.
Note: The cooperation ministry has targeted 70,000 new multipurpose PACS over the next five years, including 22,752 by 2026; 47,248 by 2029; and 56,500 new Multipurpose Dairy Cooperative Societies (MDCS) and 6,000 new Fisheries Cooperatives.
Margdarshika:
Union Minister Amit Shah has launched Margdarshika (Action Plan) for the formation and strengthening of 2 lakh new Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), Dairy and Fishery Cooperatives Societies in each Panchayat.
- It has been prepared by the MoC in collaboration with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB). With the formation and strengthening of new multipurpose cooperative societies, crores of small and marginal farmers associated with them will get forward and backward linkages.
- Also, he released SOPs for the computerization of 67,930 PACS.
About Ministry of Cooperation (MoC):
Union Minister- Amit Shah (Constituency- Gandhinagar, Gujarat)
Minister of State (MoS)- Murlidhar Mohol (Constituency- Pune, Maharashtra), Krishan Pal Gurjar (Faridabad, Haryana)
