The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) was gathering legal opinion on the listing of cooperatives, said a report from Business Standard.
Any group of individuals can form a cooperative society to act jointly for common benefit. Shares of cooperative societies in India are not offered to the public.
Listing of cooperatives is in practice in the UK, US and Australia and most of them are in retail, agriculture and agri-business. The case for listing cooperatives in India has been made on the performance of dairy cooperatives like Amul and Mother Dairy, which had revenues of $3.5 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively, in 2014-15.
Sources say as cooperatives are incorporated under the Cooperative Societies Act, this may be a hurdle to their being listed.
Sebi is discussing the issue with the ministry. Listing of cooperatives will require amendments to the Securities Contract (Regulations) Rules, the Companies Act, and the Sebi Act.