In his address, Shri Amit Shah said that today is a very important day in Indian history. In 1942, on August 9, Gandhijibegan the Quit India Movement against British Rule and today another important work is being done task is taking place on the occasion ofAzadikaAmritMahotsav on August 9, in which access to GeMhas been given to cooperative societies in the country. He said there is immense potential in the cooperative sector and the GeM portal will be a very useful platform for the expansion of this sector. The Union Minister of Cooperation said most of units of the government buy through GeM, so cooperatives should also start preparing for registration for supply on GeM to increase their market. He also appealed to the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) to expand marketing of cooperatives and for this there can be no better way than the GeM.
The Cooperation Minister said this sector has been neglected since Independence, but Prime MinisterNarendraModi is accelerating its expansion with historic reforms and modernization. Under the leadership of Shri Modi, the Ministry of Cooperation has taken a number of measures for expansion and in the last year the Ministry has been continuously working on 25 to 30 initiatives.
The government has to expand cooperatives but there is no database, therefore the ministry is also creating a national level database of different categories of cooperatives. Arrangements for training will also be made available. Shri Shah said an export house is also being registered the work for which will be completed by December. It will provide a platform for export from cooperatives across the country. He said radical changes are also being made in the Multistate Cooperative Act and the government led by Shri NarendraModi has also decided to computerize all PACS.
The Union Cooperation Minister said the cooperative model is a model in which even with limited capital people can come together and undertake large tasks easily. He said earlier the cooperative model did not have much potential, but Shri NarendraModihas awakened the aspirations of 60 crore people. He said if a system does not change itself with the times, then it becomes out dated, and therefore it is necessary to improve the cooperative system for the expansion of the sector. India’s cooperative system is 115 years old, the laws are also very old, thoughsmall changes have takenplace from time to time, radical changes and modernization according to the times have not taken place.
This is a new system, and therefore there may be some initial administrative problems, but no one should doubt the intention of bringing in this new system. Shri Shah said it is also very important to bring transparency in three areas within cooperatives – elections, recruitment and purchase. There can be no better medium than theGeM to bring transparency in procurement. The Union Minister of Cooperation said he is confident that the world will recognize this successful model of transparent government procurement in the next five5 years.
The UnionMinister of Cooperation said he is very optimistic about the future of GeM’s journey under the leadership of Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Shri PiyushGoyal. He said of the589 of the committees to be added have a turnover of about Rs.100croreare of the state government and till date 289 of them have joined, as well as 45 of the 54 multistate cooperativeshave also joined, which is a huge achievement. Also more than 10,000 products and more than 288 services have been listed. Till now business worthRs. 2.78 lakh thousand crore has also been completed which is a huge achievement of the GeM. Shri Shah said this day is important for the Nation as the Quit India movement began on August 9 and six years ago on August 9 the GeM wasalso launched and todayonboarding of cooperatives has been initiated on this day.Shri Amit Shah congratulatedthose associated with cooperatives, the entire team of the GeM and eight lakh cooperative societies and especially Shri PiyushGoyal.
