Cooperative model best suited for development of India having 130 crore population: Amit Shah

GANDHINAGAR: The cooperative model of economic development is the only one which will work to achieve an all-encompassing and all-inclusive development of India which has a population of 130 crore, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating a milk powder factory, a poly film manufacturing plant and other projects of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) here, Shah said the cooperative model has the capacity to make everyone prosperous, and Amul is a living example of it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recognised cooperative as the best economic model for the country of 130 crore population when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, he said.

Shah said taking development to all and making it work in a country with a population of 130 crore is a difficult job, while several other economic models work for countries with much lesser population than India.

"Which economic model will fit the requirements of this country is a big issue and many pundits have even failed. But, 75 years after the country saw many rules, the country's prime minister (Modi) tested the model and realised as the then chief minister of Gujarat, that if there is any economic model for an all-encompassing, all-inclusive economic development of a country with 130 crore population, then that is only cooperative," he said.

Shah said he believes the field of cooperation has the capacity to make everyone prosper.

The Amul model is an example of what one can achieve when 36 lakh people work together, he said.

This model provides the best example and the most successful experiment of women empowerment, the minister added.