Evaluate the role of the Ministry of Cooperation in promoting cooperative-based enterprises as an alternative economic model in India.

Created in July 2021 to realise the vision of "Sahkar se Samriddhi", the Ministry of Cooperation seeks to make cooperatives a third pillar of the economy alongside public and private enterprise [4]. Its record shows genuine institution-building, though the alternative model remains nascent.

Policy and institutional architecture built

• National Cooperative Policy 2025, unveiled on 24 July 2025, sets a 2025–45 roadmap of 6 pillars, 16 objectives and 83 recommendations, targeting inclusion of 50 crore members and tripling the sector's economic contribution in a decade [5].
• Over 114 major initiatives in four years, including Model Bye-Laws allowing PACS to undertake 25+ business activities, converting the village credit society into a multipurpose enterprise [4].
• Digitisation and diversification: computerisation of PACS into e-PACS, 52,018 PACS delivering CSC e-services and 38,330 upgraded to PM Kisan Samriddhi Kendras [4].

Extending cooperatives into new sectors

• Bharat Taxi, India's first cooperative-owned digital mobility platform, registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, breaks the cooperative sector out of its agri-credit confines [2].
• Its "Sarathi hi malik" model gives drivers share certificates, profit participation and governance voice instead of commission-paying gig "partner" status, with ₹5 lakh accident and health insurance cover [3].
• In Jaipur, 30,000+ Sarathis and nearly 7 lakh customers joined, with fares 10–15% below private aggregators and no surge pricing [1].

Limitations

• Scale remains small — roughly 11,000 daily trips nationally against millions on private aggregators [1]; viability without state patronage is untested.
• Cooperatives are a State subject (Entry 32, List II); the multi-state route can strain cooperative federalism.
• Top-down promotion risks bureaucratisation, weak professional management and thin audit capacity — the historic ailments of Indian cooperatives.

Overall, the Ministry has performed strongly as policy architect and enabler, less so yet as builder of self-sustaining member-driven enterprise. Institutionalising professional management, independent audit and member education, as the 2025 Policy envisages, can convert this promising experiment into a durable third growth pillar for Viksit Bharat.