Amit Shah And The NAFCUB COOPKUMBH 2025 Seeks to Bring Cooperative Banking to Every Small Town And Hinterland Village

Home Minister Amit Shah who is also the Union Cooperation Minister  inaugurated the NAFCUB-COOPKUMBH 2025 in New Delhi on 11^th November. NAFCUB is the acronym for the National Federation of Urban cooperative Banks and Credit Societies. Amit Shah has held the Union Cooperation portfolio ever since it was formed in 2021, and retained it when the NDA government embarked on a new term in 2024. This is a testament to his imagination and dynamism that has greatly helped to boost this sector.

The conference, inaugurated in New Delhi, was an international pitch on the future of India’s urban cooperative banking sector. The international cooperative movement likes to learn from each other’s initiatives and success stories.  

The conference adopted a Delhi Declaration 2025, designed to serve as a guide for the expansion of Urban Cooperative Banking systems in India. The idea is to serve every town with a population of just 2 lakh people across the country within 5 years. This, while India has a population of more than 1.4 billion, the largest in the world.

 The international cooperative movement, called the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) was established in 1895 in Britain, and has survived both the world wars despite sharp political differences amongst some of its member countries. It counts over a billion people in its ranks, members of three million cooperatives. The ICA also enjoys consultative status representation at the United Nations (UN).

The objective of the November 11^th conference is to provide cooperative banking in every nook and cranny, so that people in small towns and villages too have access to suitable and responsive banks. The cooperative construct creates a rootedness in the community that has been a hallmark of the movement. The endeavour is to provide inexpensive credit to agriculturists and MSMEs in small towns.

There will be early adoption of digital initiatives such as Sahkar Digipay and Sahkar-Digiloan apps. NAFCUB, which has been in existence since 1977 as an apex promotional body and multi-state cooperative society, has been directed to have 1,500 banks onboard Sahkar Digipay within two years. It has also been directed to upgrade as many thriving credit societies into urban cooperative banks (UCB) as possible. The Indian cooperative sector UCBs have improved their viability by bringing down their non-performing assets (NPAs), from 2.3% to 0.6% since 2023.

Internationally recognised organisations such as Amul and the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO), are shining examples of success stories in the Indian cooperative sector. So why not excel also at last-mile banking?

The Ministry of Cooperation under Amit Shah has recently introduced a National Cooperative Policy 2025 which outlines a plan for modernising the cooperative sector over the next two decades. India has been a key member of the ICA ever since it established a regional office in New Delhi in 1960.It has been a driving force in shaping cooperative models that have had a favourable impact on other organisations particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Efforts in the ministry are ongoing to strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), dairy and fisheries cooperatives, through both digital and policy reforms. The Cooperation Ministry has already established multi-state cooperative societies for organic products, exports, and traditional seeds. All three are currently much fancied globally in the face of criticism of too much use of chemical fertiliser, and the use of genetically modified seeds.

 The Ministry of Cooperation has also set up the Tribhuvan Sahkari  University to strengthen  cooperative education and turn out skilled personnel for the sector.

 

578 words

December 5^th, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Delivery, Not Disruption & Drama, Is What Parliament Is  For

Are the all too familiar wasteful and almost non-functional parliamentary proceedings in India a mirror to the fact that liberal democracy has proved to be a failure here? That seventy-five years of this subversion of the intent of our founding fathers is quite enough?  That which is enshrined in India’s bulky omnibus constitution may have been, after all, an imposition too far? That a guided democracy that does not brook anarchy and deliberate subversion needs to be ushered in now?

If this cannot be done overnight, the serious efforts at reforms must begin urgently. Does this unwieldy and out-of-date constitution need to be amended or replaced by one that serves the times we live in? Is wasting hundreds of crores to run parliamentary sessions that end up hurriedly passing bills into law without discussion worth it? It seems to be the only recourse available, and that by virtue of a ruling alliance majority. Where is the proper representation of the people in all this? Is this a sham with no accountability that is merely playing at democracy?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the winter session of parliament on the 1^st of December with the customary opening remarks from the head of government. His strong admonitions and appeals to the opposition to not vent their frustration at their recent rout at the Bihar Assembly elections, fell quite predictably, on deaf ears. The wrath is not only directed at the ruling NDA alliance, but the Election Commission, a constitutional body; at the courts, including the Supreme Court, for not supporting the spurious Congress and TMC allegations.

This is a time when we must act. Expulsions will work better than persuasion. Nothing short of it will make any difference to parliamentarians, enamoured of extra constitutional methods, bent on stopping the work of the house. Methods that instigate mobs and riots, arson and violence, on the streets.  

But since such people are thankfully in a minority in parliament, they can, and must be firmly dealt with. Suspending them for a day or two, or even a week, has not worked in the past. They need to be sent out for the whole session. Their terms as members of parliament need to be cut from five years to four or even three, till they decide to behave appropriately in the house. It remains to be seen whether the government has the determination to do any such thing. Judging from past sessions of parliament, this does not seem likely. Helplessness is also a political strategy.

It must be said that not all parties in the opposition at this time are of one mind, and some want to proceed with the business at hand. The prime minister’s remarks occasioned strong reactions from the Congress, though it has won only 6 seats out of 243 in Bihar. There is no acceptance of reality. No urge to change its ways. Instead, its anger was wrapped in an assertion that the conduct of the elections was unfair, followed by a clamour for an immediate discussion on the ongoing SIR process. This, even if the discussion was held under the broader category of ‘election reforms’.

However, several other opposition parties were markedly more interested in pursuing other issues, including the legislative agenda first.

A clear division in the ranks of the I.N.D.I.A opposition alliance is evidently forming, and the leadership of the alliance by Congress might well be under review. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) from West Bengal, for example, was already moving on its own and not attending meetings called by Congress. There is also disquiet within the Congress on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and indeed the Gandhi family.

That the recent ‘Vote Chori’ campaign in the media and the tour in Bihar undertaken by Rahul Gandhi and Tejaswi Yadav pulled a blank, and possibly harmed their cause, must be still rankling. And yet, Congress is determined to continue the campaign. But others in the I.N.D.I.A. alliance, including Tejaswi Yadav of the RJD, are not convinced. There is apparently no Vote Chori except as a fantasy in Rahul Gandhi’s mind!

 The prime minister urged the sections of the opposition who are busy accusing the EC to get over their obsession. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijuju was more conciliatory, and assured the protestors that the government would consider the demand for a discussion on SIR, but the timelines for it could not be dictated by the opposition.

Through the noise, a bill was passed in the morning of day one in the Lok Sabha. It was to implement the GST law in Manipur. But another two bills, also tabled by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to rejig levies on tobacco, pan masala and related goods, could not proceed in the face of constant slogan shouting. This resulted, as usual, in the Lok Sabha being adjourned for the rest of the day. Every expensive session of parliament functions in this chaotic manner.

The Rajya Sabha fared no better, with the opposition Congress, CPM and TMC demanding immediate discussion on SIR and eventually walking out when it was not agreed to.  The plan is to keep it up for days, and taking it to the entrances and lawns outside as well.

The real fear is that the SIR process now to take place in just 12 states at first, will catch and out many illegals. The process, to update and sanctify the electoral rolls may weed out lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. If found out, they have been added with the likely connivance of parties who use them in their vote banks. That the SIR has been regularly conducted every few years since independence is conveniently ignored.

In his opening remarks before the start of the session, Prime Minister Modi said the opposition should avoid disruption so that debate and discussion can take place on important legislation. Nor should sections of the opposition use the winter session as a political ‘warm up’ tool for the approaching poll campaigns in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu that will go in for elections in the first half of 2026. This, followed by those in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh in 2027.

There is every attempt to bring state politics to the highest legislative body in the land, remarked the prime minister.

Everyone knows what is going on, but how far is the government prepared to go in order to stop it?

(1,064 words)

December 2^nd, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee