The government will conduct a Rapid Survey on Functional Cooperatives (RSFC) from April 2026 to estimate the economic contribution and employment generated by the cooperative sector across India.
Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, said the survey will be carried out by the National Statistics Office at the request of the Ministry of Cooperation.
The survey aims to estimate Gross Value Added (GVA), Gross Value of Output (GVO), and employment generated by major cooperative sectors at the all-India level.
According to the minister, the survey will use the National Cooperative Database as the sampling frame and will cover primary cooperatives and their federations across 30 sectors, including agriculture, dairy, fisheries, housing, credit, handloom, labour and multipurpose cooperatives.
The coverage will also include multistate cooperative societies as well as district, state and national-level federations of cooperatives.
During the survey, selected cooperatives will provide information on expenses, receipts, taxes, subsidies, distributive expenses and depreciation, along with employment and labour costs for two reference years- FY 2020-21 and FY 2023-24.
However, for Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and State Cooperative Banks (StCBs), only employment-related information will be collected.
The minister said the estimates generated through the survey will help the government undertake evidence-based policymaking to strengthen the cooperative sector in the country.
