Amit Shah e-launches onboarding of cooperatives on GeM portal

New Delhi: Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah launched the onboarding of cooperatives on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, today in New Delhi. The programme organized by the Ministry of Cooperation, Government of India, the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and GeMwas also attended by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri PiyushGoyal, Union Minister of State for Cooperation and North East Region Development BL Verma and the NCUI President Dilip Sanghani and many other dignitaries.

In his address, Amit Shah said that today is a very important day in Indian history. In 1942, on August 9, Gandhijibegan the Quit India Movement against British Rule and today another important work is being done task is taking place on the occasion ofAzadikaAmritMahotsav on August 9, in which access to GeM portal has been given to cooperative societies in the country. He said there is immense potential in the cooperative sector and the GeM portal will be a very useful platform for the expansion of this sector. The Union Minister of Cooperation said the most of the units of the government buy through GeM, so cooperatives should also start preparing for registration for supply on GeM to increase their market. He also appealed to the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) to exthe pand marketing of cooperatives and for, this there can be no better way than the GeM.

The Cooperation Minister said this sector has been neglected since Independence, but Prime MinisterNarendraModi is accelerating its expansion with historic reforms and modernization. Under the leadership of Shri Modi, the Ministry of Cooperation has taken a number of measures for expansion and in the last, year the Ministry has been continuously working on 25 to 30 initiatives.

The government has to expand cooperatives but there is no database, therefore the ministry is also creating a national-level database of different categories of cooperatives. Arrangements for training will also be made available. Shri Shah said an export house is also being registered the work for which will be completed by December. It will provide a platform for export from cooperatives across the country. He said radical changes are also being made in the Multistate Cooperative Act and the government led by PM Modi has also decided to computerize all PACS.

Amit Shah said population size is a great advantage in an economy because ultimately the population is also the market. Till 2014, India's population was 130 crore, but the market was only 60 crore, as 70 crore people did not have purchasing capacity. 60 crore people worried about their next meal and other basic needs and generations went through the same ordeal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened bank accounts, provided gas cylinders, toilets, electricity, pure drinking water and food grains free of cost to the poor and as a result awakened the aspirations of these 60 crore people by fulfilling their basic needs in cooperatives have the potential to fulfil all these aspirations. Today after fulfilling their primary needs, these people have ambitions to move ahead in life by earning more money and through cooperatives, they can fulfil these ambitions. Shri Amit Shah said if these 60 crore people have justRs. 5,000, they can run the biggest of cooperatives. Giving the example of Amul, Shri Shah said today this cooperative has crossed a turnover of Rs.60,000crore and20 lakh women members are not only running the cooperative but have also been making profits for many years.

The Union Cooperation Minister said the cooperative model is a model in which even with limited capital people can come together and undertake large tasks easily. He said earlier that the cooperative model did not have much potential, but Shri NarendraModihas awakened the aspirations of 60 crore people. He said if a system does not change itself with the times, then it becomes outdated, and therefore it is necessary to improve the cooperative system for the expansion of the sector. India's cooperative system is 115 years old, and the laws are also very old, though small changes have taken place from time to time, radical changes and modernization according to the times have not taken place.

Amit Shah said now the cooperative sector cannot be given second-class treatment, however, there is a need to bring about change and to move in the direction of bringing transparency and for cooperatives to prepare themselves for change. The GeM portal will be very useful in bringing transparency to the cooperative sector and when there is transparency, the trust of farmers and milk producers will also increase in the committees and their members. He said that by bringing the GeM portal, PM Modi has brought transparency in government procurement. This is a new system, and therefore there may be some initial administrative problems, but no one should doubt the intention of bringing in this new system. Shri Shah said it is also very important to bring transparency in three areas within cooperatives – elections, recruitment and purchase. There can be no better medium than the GeM to bring transparency in procurement. The Union Minister of Cooperation said he is confident that the world will recognize this successful model of transparent government procurement in the next five5 years.

The union minister of Cooperation said he is very optimistic about the future of GeM's journey under the leadership of the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Shri PiyushGoyal. He said of the589 of the committees to be added has a turnover of about Rs.100croreare of the state government and to date 289 of them have joined, as well as 45 of the 54 multistate cooperatives have also joined, which is a huge achievement. Also, more than 10,000 products and more than 288 services have been listed. Till now business worth Rs 2.78 lakh thousand crores has also been completed which is a huge achievement of the GeM. Shri Shah said this day is important for the Nation as the Quit India movement began on August 9 and six years ago on August 9 the GeM was also launched and today onboarding of cooperatives has been initiated on this day. Amit Shah congratulated those associated with cooperatives, the entire team of the GeM and eight lakh cooperative societies and especially Piyush Goyal.

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