In less than a year since the idea was introduced, a substantial number of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) have successfully onboarded to the Common Services Centers (CSC) portal.
Of approximately 95,000 PACS across the country, about 52,568 have joined the CSC portal, and over 35,379 have begun offering services. Given that there are around 65,000 viable PACS, a majority are now onboarded.
These services, which include banking, insurance, and Aadhaar enrolment, previously posed challenges for villagers. Now, residents can conveniently access these services at their local PACS office, significantly simplifying these processes. According to the Ministry of Cooperation, PACS in rural areas are now equipped to offer over 300 services.
The integration was formalized in February last year when a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of Union Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah and Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.
This initiative allows onboarded PACS to provide a broad spectrum of services listed on the Digital Seva Portal of the CSC scheme to citizens, including legal services, agricultural inputs, and travel-related services.
This historic initiative is supported by the Ministry of Cooperation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, NABARD, and CSC e-Governance Services India Limited in New Delhi.
Dileep Sanghani, President of the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), expressed enthusiasm about the progress, noting that “PACS are the soul of cooperatives and turning them into multipurpose service providers will boost employment opportunities in rural areas.”
Sanghani emphasized the importance of PACS in rural and agricultural development, marking it as a step towards realizing Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Sahkar Se Samridhi’ (Prosperity through Cooperation).
