‘Aim to digitise 65,000 cooperative societies’

New Delhi Nabard Chairman Shaji K V on Wednesday said the government aims to computerise about 65,000 cooperative societies by March 2024 in order to improve transparency and efficiency of such cooperatives.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has been designated as project manager for computerisation of cooperative societies under the guidance and directions of the National Level Monitoring and Implementation Committee and Ministry of Cooperation. “Close to 10,000 cooperative societies have already been digitised. We are targeting 65,000 societies to be digitised by March 2024,” he said at a conference organised by Sa Dhan. Observing that cooperatives have created lot of inefficiencies over the years, he said, “we are trying to clean up by improving transparency and making them important value chain players through computerisation of these entities.” Nabard is also building a data warehouse for cooperatives and the rural sector, he said, adding, it should be in place in about six months. Once that is in place, it will be available for players to use data for their and borrowers’ benefit. Pointing at the regional disparity with regard to microfinance exposure, Shaji said, it is skewed more towards East and South.