Delhi Launches Policy to Propel National Development and City Growth
Delhi, the nation’s capital, recently hosted the unveiling of the National Cooperative Policy 2025, a landmark initiative poised to significantly bolster national development and, consequently, contribute to overall city growth. This comprehensive policy aims to foster economic prosperity at the grassroots level by expanding the cooperative movement, thereby indirectly fueling urban centers. By empowering rural communities and integrating them more deeply into the formal economy, the policy is designed to create widespread livelihood opportunities and improve living standards across the country, which in turn strengthens the national economy and supports sustainable urban expansion.
The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation emphasized that this new policy is a pivotal step towards realizing the vision of “Sahkar Se Samriddhi” (prosperity through cooperation), with a core focus on the upliftment of villages, agriculture, rural women, marginalized communities, and tribal populations. The strategic objective is to establish professional, transparent, technology-enabled, and economically self-reliant cooperative units, striving for at least one cooperative unit in every village by 2047. This decentralized economic empowerment is crucial; as rural incomes rise, it stimulates demand for goods and services, creates supply chain efficiencies, and can help manage rural-to-urban migration by fostering local opportunities, all of which are vital for balanced national and city growth.
The National Cooperative Policy 2025 sets ambitious targets, aiming to triple the cooperative sector’s contribution to the GDP by 2034, bringing 50 crore active members into its fold, and generating substantial employment opportunities, particularly for the youth in rural areas. The Minister highlighted the sector’s remarkable resurgence and its unique capacity to inclusively develop the nation’s economy. The policy, drafted by a 48-member national-level committee, is forward-looking and member-centric, ensuring that the growth of individual members forms the fundamental basis of its success, thereby contributing to a stronger national economic base that underpins metropolitan development.
Looking ahead, the policy envisions a notable expansion of cooperatives into contemporary sectors like taxi services and insurance by the end of 2025, ensuring that financial benefits directly accrue to members. The government plans to use data-driven approaches to classify villages and identify gaps, promoting equitable cooperative development across all states. This strategic, data-informed approach aims to cultivate a robust and balanced cooperative ecosystem nationwide, supporting India’s overarching goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047. Such widespread economic strengthening in rural areas naturally creates a more robust domestic market and stable workforce, benefiting urban economies and overall national development.
The policy’s strong emphasis on grassroots empowerment and diverse sectoral expansion positions the cooperative movement as a vital engine for comprehensive national development, with significant positive ripple effects on city growth and economic stability.
