The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee conferred the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) Awards for Cooperative Excellence 2012 at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan today (December 8, 2012).

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the cooperatives in India face many challenges and problems; their performance across sectors, activities, and regions is variable; they need to re-orient themselves by improving their efficiency, and have to develop themselves professionally to meet the requirements of their core clientele - farmers, growers, artisans, producers and women. However, the cooperatives are perhaps still the best way of reaching out into the vast hinterland of this country, he added.

The President stated that cooperatives in India are pivotal institutions for bringing socio-economic development for inclusive growth in rural areas. With a network of six lakh cooperatives and a membership base of 24 crores, the Indian cooperative movement has proved to be an effective economic instrument for ensuring growth with equity and inclusiveness, he said.

Among the dignitaries present on the occasion were Shri Sharad Pawar, Union Minister for Agriculture & Food Processing Industries, Shri Charan Das Mahant, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation and Shri C.B. Paliwal, Managing Director, NCDC.

National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is a statutory Corporation set up under an act of Parliament in March 1963 for developing rural economic activities through cooperatives. The NCDC Awards for Cooperative Excellence is an initiative to encourage and give due recognition to those cooperatives who despite all odds, are able to sustain and work for development and prosperity of agrarian society. The Awards are for inculcating a sense of achievement and spirit of cooperation and thus set an example worthy of emulation. The awards are of two categories i.e. State Awards and National Awards. The State Awards are bestowed to one Primary Level Cooperative from each State biennially. It comprises a Trophy, cash prize of Rs.50,000/- and a certificate of recognition. Three National Awards have been instituted from this year. These are bestowed to the best performing societies in the States, one each from the three categories of States i.e. "Cooperatively Developed States", "Cooperatively Under Developed States" and "Cooperatively Least Developed States". Each National Award carries a cash prize of Rs.1.00 lakh and a Certificate of recognition and a Trophy. 24 State Awards and 3 National Awards have been given this year.