Union Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday said the government has initiated the process to come out with a co-operative policy for the country.?He was addressing the 'Sahakar Beneficiaries Conference' here. "There is also a plan to set up a cooperative university in the country to fulfil the manpower needs. The work of creating a national database of all the cooperatives in the entire country is also going on, and a co-operative policy has also been initiated," Shah said.

He said a committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu to work regarding the policy. "Also, we are going to expand the role of NCDC ( National Cooperative Development Corporation) along with NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) so that cooperative societies can get finance in a better way. Elections should be transparent so that a model act has also been prepared and sent to all the States," he added.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Union Minister Parlhad Joshi, state's cooperative Minister S T Somashekar among others were present at the event. Karnataka is a State where cooperative movement has been going on for a long time in a great way, Shah said, it is said that the country's first cooperative society was set up in 1905 in a Kanaginahal village in Gadag district by Siddanagouda Sannaramana Gouda Patil.

He complimented Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting up a separate cooperative ministry in the country, aimed at nurturing the sector. Pointing out that there are about 30 lakh cooperatives in the world and out of it about 9 lakh are in the country, Shah said ?91 per cent of population is linked to a cooperative in one way or another, with cooperatives covering 70 per cent of the country's farmers through PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Society).