Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah will launch the computerization project of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCSs) of all states and Union Territories in the national capital on January 30.
This program is being organized by the Ministry of Cooperation in collaboration with the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), said the Ministry in a release.
As per the release, the Computerization of ARDB and RCS offices of all states and UTs is one of the several important steps taken by the Ministry of Cooperation towards realizing Prime Minister Modi’s vision of “Sahkar Se Samriddhi”.
The project, under the aegis of the Ministry of Cooperation, shows the commitment of the Modi government to modernize the cooperative sector and enhance efficiency by bringing the entire cooperative ecosystem on a digital platform.
The computerization project of ARDBs aims at computerizing 1,851 units of ARDBs located in 13 states and UTs and linking them with NABARD through common national software.
This initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation will increase the operational efficiency, accountability and transparency in ARDB by standardizing business procedures through a Common Accounting System (CAS) and Management Information System (MIS).
Furthermore, the initiative aims at reducing transaction costs, facilitating loan distribution to farmers and enabling real-time data access for better monitoring and assessment of schemes.
This will benefit small and marginal farmers, connected with ARDBs for credit and related services through Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACSs) at the grassroots level.
Under the second major initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation, the aim is the computerization of offices of RCS in all states and UTs, motivating RCS offices for paperless functioning and implementing an IT-oriented workflow in accordance with the Cooperative Acts and Regulations of the states and UTs.
Along with this, its targets also include better efficiency, accountability and transparency in RCS offices, setting up analytics and MIS and ensuring linkage with the national database.