New "Ministry Of Cooperation" Created A Day Before PM's Cabinet Reshuffle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on Tuesday created a new 'Ministry of Cooperation', looking to provide more heft to the cooperative movement in the country. The move came a day before the Union cabinet was scheduled for a reshuffle, with some new faces expected to join the Centre in key positions.

The creation of the new ministry indicates the Centre's commitment to community-based developmental partnership, according to release from the Cabinet Secretariat. "Sahkar se samriddhi" (Prosperity from cooperation) is the vision of the Ministry of Cooperation, it said, calling the move "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, ti said, will work to streamline processes to ensure the ease of doing business for cooperatives and enable development of multi-state co-operatives, it said.

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 Budget 2021-22 this year on February 1, Ms Sitharaman 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."

Prime Minister Modi's mega cabinet reshuffle, the first in his second term, will be announced today at 6 pm. The new cabinet will be the youngest ever in India's history, top government sources have told NDTV.

Some of the probable ministers who have arrived in the national capital already or are heading towards it are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, the Lok Janshakti Party's Pashupati Kumar Paras, Narayan Rane, and Varun Gandhi.