India’s cooperative movement is witnessing major transformations in recent times. From Gujarat’s powerful marketing federations to Maharashtra’s successful sugar cooperatives and women-led poultry groups in Jharkhand are key examples of this shift. The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), established in 1963 under the Ministry of Cooperation, plays a key part in this change. It stands as one of the country’s top institutions and financial supporters to push progress through cooperatives.
More than 8.44 lakh cooperative societies exist in India today, involving over 30 crore members, and almost 94% of farmers participate in cooperatives in some capacity. This sector’s vast size, variety and importance in society give NCDC a key role—both to boost rural development and to push forward the larger goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047. The Corporation has delivered strong financial results and adapted well to policies over the last ten years, creating a path focused on being inclusive, inventive and self-sufficient.
Importantly, NCDC’s growth story is about distributed prosperity rather than just numbers. From agriculture and related industries to non-farm livelihood activities like dairy, livestock, handlooms, sericulture, fisheries, and women-led businesses, its financing footprint is wide-ranging. The Corporation’s deliberate efforts to promote greater inclusivity have been a defining characteristic of recent years. In order to ensure that historically underrepresented communities have fair access to credit and institutional support, ₹57.78 crore in loans were given exclusively to SC/ST cooperatives between FY 2021–2022 and FY 2024–25.
The Corporation’s financial support has played a big role in key parts of the country’s economy. By March 2025, sugar mills working together will get ₹33,311.79 crore in total to help them. This allows them to modernize their production facilities and join in India’s growing ethanol business. From 2022 to 2025, India’s government set aside ₹1,000 crore to help make cooperative sugar mills stronger. This lets NCDC give these mills up to ₹10,000 crore in loans that last a while. The new way of splitting the money – now 90:10 instead of 70:30 – and the lower 8. With a 5% interest rate, 56 sugar mills throughout the country got ₹10,005 crore in financial help.
NCDC has had an impact on innovation by creating specific programs that meet new needs beyond overall sector lending. Yuva Sahakar, which began in 2019–20, helps young people start and grow cooperative businesses across the country. It has supported 32 groups so far, approving ₹49.35 crore and giving out ₹3.71 crore. In 2020–21, NCDC started the Ayushman Sahakar program to help cooperatives in healthcare offer complete and affordable health services to communities. This program has backed nine groups and approved ₹161.90 crore. Dairy Sahakar (2021–22) has made India’s dairy cooperatives stronger, with ₹177 crore in support.72 crore given out to boost the entire dairy supply chain.
The Corporation started Digital Sahakar in 2021–22 to help India’s digital shift. This program backs tech-savvy co-ops and makes it easier to get credit, grants, and government perks. Plans like Swayam Shakti Sahakar Yojana and Nandini Sahakar work alongside it, giving rural women better chances to get money, business help, and grow their own companies. New rules keep boosting the field as NCDC grows its money and growth reach. The Central Sector Scheme “Grant-in-Aid to NCDC” which was approved by the Union Cabinet with ₹2,000 crore set aside for 2025–2026 to 2028–2029, looks set to shake things up big time. Over the next four years, 13,288 cooperative societies and 2.9 crore members in dairy, livestock, fisheries, food processing, textiles, storage, labor and women-led cooperatives will see benefits from the scheme. This plan will help them access ₹20,000 crore from the open market. The new National Cooperation Policy (NCP) 2025 complements this, which aims to establish a transparent, technologically advanced, professionally run, globally competitive cooperative ecosystem based on the Sahkar-se-Samriddhi principle.
The cooperative model remains one of India’s most powerful engines of rural socio-economic upliftment, and NCDC’s strategic approach — blending expansion of credit, inclusive financing, innovation enablement, and capacity-building — has placed it at the heart of India’s cooperative renaissance. As the nation accelerates toward self-reliance, NCDC stands not merely as a financial institution but as a catalyst shaping community-owned development, strengthening rural livelihoods, and ensuring that growth reaches the last mile.
