Jyoti Saroop
Cooperative Entrepreneur | Founder, UNATI | Voice from the Ground
For the first time in independent India, something fundamentally important has changed. Cooperatives are no longer invisible.
The creation of the Ministry of Cooperation, the declaration of the National Cooperation Policy 2025, the revival of PACS, their computerisation, the formation of NCEL, NCOL, BBSSL, Bhart Taxi and focused schemes like Ayushman Sahakar, Sehkar Sarthi have sent a strong and unambiguous signal:
The Government of India has finally acknowledged that cooperatives are not a legacy structure — they are a future force.
As someone who has spent over two decades building cooperatives in difficult geographies, with limited capital but unlimited conviction, I say this clearly and without hesitation:
The Ministry of Cooperation has laid the tracks.
Union Budget 2026 must now run high-speed trains on them.
From Recognition to Respect. From Respect to Results.
Policy recognition is powerful. But economic respect comes only when institutions are trusted with scale, speed, and risk. Today, cooperatives are being revived.
Tomorrow, they must lead from the front. Budget 2026 is not about announcing new slogans.
It is about answering one hard question:
“If cooperatives are India’s second engine of growth,
why are we still fuelling them like bullock carts?”
India Built Startup India.
Now It Is Time to Build
“Start-Coop-Up India.”
Let me be very clear: this is not a criticism of what the government has done.
It is a call for the next inevitable evolution. India’s cooperative landscape has changed dramatically:
- Young professionals are forming cooperatives
- Women are leading enterprise-oriented collectives
- Cooperatives are using drones, and have diversified in areas like FMCG, wellness, logistics, digital commerce, and climate action
- Multi-state cooperatives are thinking nationally and globally
Yet, these new-age cooperatives are trapped in an old binary:
- Not treated like startups
- Not supported like traditional cooperatives
This is the gap Budget 2026 must courageously bridge..
“India does not need startups versus cooperatives. India needs startups with cooperatives.”
START-COOP-UP INDIA: The Missing National Leap
Imagine a Bharat where:
- Startups bring technology, speed, and innovation
- Cooperatives bring scale, trust, and community ownership
- PACS become enterprise hubs
- SHGs become market-facing brands
- Farmers, women, and youth become co-owners of growth
This is not imagination. This is India’s natural economic design. Budget 2026 must institutionalise this convergence.
Five Strategic Expectations from Budget 2026 — From the Ground
- From PACS Revival to PACS Entrepreneurship
The government has rightly invested in digitising and strengthening PACS.
This is historic. Now the next question is unavoidable:
What will PACS produce economically?
Budget 2026 must enable PACS to become:
- Micro-processing centres
- Local service hubs (drones, storage, logistics)
- Market-linked aggregation points
- Partners to FPOs, cooperatives, and startups
PACS should not only manage data. They must generate income.
- From NCEL & NCOL Institutions to Cooperative Market Power
The creation of NCEL and NCOL is a visionary move. For the first time, cooperatives are being positioned as serious market players.
Now Budget 2026 must strengthen their backbone:
- Working capital access for member cooperatives
- Export readiness, branding, compliance support
- Incentives for cooperatives supplying national platforms
Markets will sustain cooperatives longer than subsidies ever can.
- From SHG Mobilisation to Women-Owned Enterprises
India has mobilised nearly 9 crore women through SHGs. This is a social miracle. But the next leap is economic. Women do not need endless micro-credit.
They need:
- Growth capital
- Market access
- Ownership
- Leadership roles
Budget 2026 must push women-led cooperatives into:
- FMCG
- Nutrition & wellness
- Services
- Agri-processing
When women change from members to owners, families, markets, and society transform together.
- From Climate Commitment to Cooperative Climate Action
India’s climate goals are ambitious — and necessary. But climate action cannot succeed without:
- Farmers
- Forest communities
- Rural institutions
Cooperatives are the most trusted vehicles for:
- Natural farming
- Bio-inputs
- Renewable energy
- Circular economy
Budget 2026 must route climate finance through cooperatives, not bypass them.
- From Cooperative Members to Cooperative Entrepreneurs
A silent transformation is underway. A new class of cooperative entrepreneurs is emerging — people who:
- Take market risks
- Build institutions, not exits
- Share wealth instead of concentrating it
They deserve recognition, trust, and leadership support. India must proudly say:
Cooperative entrepreneurship is national entrepreneurship.
This Is Not a Demand. It Is a Direction.
The Ministry of Cooperation has already shown intent. Now Budget 2026 must show confidence. Confidence that:
- Communities can build enterprises
- Cooperatives can compete
- Inclusion and efficiency can coexist
From Sahkar se Samriddhi as a vision to Sahkar as India’s growth architecture
A Final Word — Not from the Podium, but from the Field
India’s future will not be built only by:
- Urban unicorns
- Or government spending on Subsidies
It will be built by institutions rooted in people, ethics, and shared prosperity. Cooperatives are not India’s past. They are India’s most civilizational answer to modern economic challenges.
Union Budget 2026 can make that truth irreversible.
One-Line Sankalp
“Empower cooperatives like startups, and India will scale prosperity without losing its soul.”
From scattered sparks to a living cooperative grid — step by step, we rise.
