Bhubaneswar: Odisha has 8,063 functional cooperative societies out of a total of 8,667 registered societies, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday in a written reply.
Citing data from the National Cooperative Database as of July 15, Shah said the state continues to strengthen its cooperative network through several central initiatives aimed at improving transparency, technology adoption and financial sustainability.
The minister said the Centre launched the Central Sector Project for Computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in 2022. The project initially covered 63,000 PACS with a financial outlay of Rs 2,516 crore. It has since been expanded to include 79,630 PACS with a revised outlay of Rs 2,925.39 crore, according to an official statement.
The project aims to bring all functional PACS onto a common Enterprise Resource Planning-based national software platform. It also connects PACS with NABARD through State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks.
Odisha joined the project in 2025. A total of 4,240 PACS have been sanctioned under the computerisation programme in the state. The Centre has provided financial assistance of Rs 25.07 crore to Odisha under the project. This includes Rs 18.07 crore during the 2025-26 financial year and Rs 7 crore during 2026-27.
Shah also informed the House that the National Cooperative Development Corporation had cumulatively disbursed Rs 3,352.03 crore for the development of Odisha’s cooperative sector as of June 30.
The minister further said the Ministry of Cooperation has introduced several initiatives since its formation on July 6, 2021, to achieve the vision of “Sahakar-se-Samriddhi”. These measures focus on making primary cooperatives more transparent and economically viable, strengthening urban and rural cooperative banks, providing tax relief to cooperative societies, reviving cooperative sugar mills, promoting information technology, creating the National Cooperative Database, framing a National Cooperation Policy and establishing Tribhuvan Sahkari University.
The ministry has also encouraged Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, dairy cooperatives and fisheries cooperatives to function as multipurpose cooperative societies. The move is intended to diversify their activities, improve financial sustainability and reduce the risk of closure.
