Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has said that the Committee of Secretaries, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, has recommended the inclusion of cooperative banks as participant institutions under various Government of India schemes.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the Minister said that several Ministries and Departments have already acted on the recommendation. The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, among others, has revised its scheme guidelines to formally include cooperative banks.
Highlighting steps to address cyber fraud, Shah said the Ministry of Cooperation has requested all States, Union Territories and cooperative banks to onboard the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) to ensure prompt reporting and effective response. Over 600 cooperative banks have already been onboarded on the I4C platform.
The Minister further noted that the license fee for onboarding cooperative banks to the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) has been reduced by linking it to transaction volumes. Cooperative financial institutions will also get the AePS facility free of cost for the first three months of the pre-production phase, enabling doorstep banking services through biometric authentication.