In a bid to spark fresh thinking on the future of India’s cooperative movement, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), in partnership with MyGov, has launched a nationwide essay competition on the theme “Increasing Significance of Cooperatives in Changing Times.”
The contest is open to citizens of all ages and aims to generate original ideas on how cooperatives can adapt, expand and empower communities in a rapidly evolving economic and social landscape.
The NCDC believes cooperatives are poised to play a far greater role in achieving inclusive growth, employment generation, and local self-reliance. At a time when sectors like agriculture, dairy, housing, credit, fisheries and services are undergoing policy reforms and digital transformation, the competition hopes to tap into public creativity-especially from youth, students, and professionals-on strengthening cooperative institutions.
Participants can write in either Hindi or English, with essays capped at 1,500 words, and a 50-word grace limit. The organisers are looking for entries that offer innovative approaches to improve governance, expand market access, encourage gender and youth participation, build sustainability models, and align cooperatives with national development priorities.
To incentivise quality participation, the NCDC has announced attractive prizes: Rs 15,000 for the top entry, followed by Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for the second and third positions. Three consolation prizes of Rs 2,000 each will also be awarded to essays that stand out for clarity, creativity, and practicality.
Officials say this platform is designed not just as a contest, but as a citizen-driven consultation that could influence policy perspectives. Cooperatives today cater to over 30 crore people in India, and the government has been pushing reforms, digital tools, and diversification to make them globally competitive.
With the Ministry of Cooperation focusing on modernization, professional training and Multi-State Cooperative Societies reforms, public engagement through such contests is being seen as timely.
The initiative also aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for “Sahkar se Samriddhi” (prosperity through cooperation), which stresses the need to revive and reposition cooperatives to meet contemporary challenges-from rural entrepreneurship and climate resilience to supply chain integration and social equity.
The contest underscores the belief that community-led business models will remain central to India’s development story, but must evolve with changing times. By drawing ideas directly from citizens, NCDC and MyGov hope to crowdsource implementable suggestions that reflect ground realities.
Entries can be submitted through the MyGov platform, where complete guidelines and deadlines are available. The organisers emphasize that beyond cash prizes, participants gain an opportunity to influence the future direction of a sector that touches millions of livelihoods across the country.
