Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah will launch the computerization project of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCSs) of all States and Union Territories in New Delhi on January 30. This program is being organized by the Ministry of Cooperation, in collaboration with the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
The project aims at computerizing 1,851 units of ARDBs located in 13 States/UTs and link them with NABARD through a common national software. This initiative of the ministry of cooperation will increase the operational efficiency, accountability and transparency in ARDB by standardizing business procedures through Common Accounting System (CAS) and Management Information System (MIS). Furthermore, the initiative aims at reducing transaction costs, facilitating loan distribution to farmers and enabling real-time data access for better monitoring and assessment of schemes. This will benefit small and marginal farmers, connected with ARDBs for credit and related services through Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACSs) at the grassroots level.
Under the second major initiative of the ministry of cooperation, the aim is the computerization of offices of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) in all States and Union Territories, motivating RCS offices for paperless functioning and to implement an IT-oriented workflow in accordance with the Cooperative Acts and Regulations of the States and Union Territories. Its targets also include better efficiency, accountability, and transparency in RCS offices, setting up analytics and MIS, and ensuring linkage with the national database.
