Union Minister of State for Cooperation Krishan Pal Gurjar inaugurated the National Cooperative Training Framework (NCTF) on Wednesday, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, marking a significant step towards strengthening cooperative education, training and capacity building across the country.
Addressing the Final National-Level Consultation on Convergence and Validation of the NCTF, Gurjar emphasised that the framework’s success would be judged by its impact on grassroots cooperative institutions and their members. He called for role-specific training pathways for cooperative members, elected board representatives and employees, alongside multilingual and AI-enabled learning solutions.
He also stressed the need to strengthen local trainer networks, utilise existing infrastructure and address regional requirements to ensure that language, geographical, gender and digital barriers do not restrict access to training opportunities. He particularly underlined the importance of strong PACS as the foundation of a stronger cooperative movement.
Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, Dr. Ashish Bhutani, highlighted the need for standardised curricula, training methodologies and certification mechanisms to create a robust and quality-driven training ecosystem. He emphasised leveraging digital platforms and Artificial Intelligence, strengthening existing training institutions and building the capacities of stakeholders across nearly 8.5 lakh cooperative institutions.
Bhutani reaffirmed the Ministry’s full support for developing an integrated, practical and outcome-oriented framework through active stakeholder participation and institutional coordination.
The consultation was held under the chairmanship of Prof. (Dr.) S. P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Tribhuvan Sahkari University, and Siddharth Jain, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation.
Tribhuvan Sahkari University presented key learnings and consolidated recommendations, followed by detailed discussions on the draft framework, institutional responsibilities, priority areas and the implementation roadmap.
Representatives of cooperative federations, Ministry officials and other key stakeholders participated in the deliberations, aimed at building consensus and translating recommendations into practical steps for the effective implementation of the NCTF.
