In its annual report 2023-24, Nabard said that the top 5 states with the largest number of cooperatives accounting for over 57% of the cooperatives in the country are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka.
“Though India has a very large number of cooperatives, the spread of the cooperative movement has not been uniform across states. Maharashtra alone accounts for over a fourth of the total cooperatives in the country”, it added.
There are still 18,497 gram panchayats not covered by a PACS in India and the government has launched a central plan to establish a cooperative society in each of these, reads the Nabard report.
It further added, “India ranks second in the Asia Pacific region (after Japan) and sixth in the world (after the USA, France, Germany, Brazil, and Japan) in terms of number of cooperatives under this category. Among the top 300 cooperatives listed by turnover (US$), IFFCO is placed 72nd, Amul 90th, and KRIBHCO 236th” the Nabard report said.
Formation of dairy cooperatives in India was the driving force behind its ‘White Revolution’, transforming it from being a milk-deficient country to the largest milk producer in the world with 24% share in the global milk production. The dairy sector contributes to over 5% of India’s GDP.