PACS to offer services of Common Service Centres; Cooperation ministry signs MoU.

• The Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) will soon start providing services offered by Common Service Centres (CSC).
• Plus they will be able to provide all the services listed on the Digital Seva Portal of CSC scheme to citizens.
  • Such services include banking, insurance, Aadhaar enrolment/update, legal services, agri-inputs like farm equipment, PAN card, etc.
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of this effect was signed between the Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, NABARD and CSC e-Governance Services India Limited.
• This will not only help in fulfilling objective of ‘Sahkar Se Samridhi’ and making cooperatives the backbone of rural development, but will also strengthen both cooperatives and farmers.
• It will help in advancing the concept of Common Service Centres (CSC) to the smallest unit of the country very easily.
• The PACS will now be able to undertake 20 different activities including water distribution, storage, Bank Mitra. He said that the first and foremost task is to make the services provided by the Common Service Centres available to the rural population through PACS.
• Union Budget 2023-24 has a provision to make 2 lakh PACS in next 5 years and create a multi-purpose PACS in every Panchayat.

About PACS

• PACS, registered as cooperative societies, at the village level (one of the three-tier) provide short-term cooperative credit.
• Other two tiers: State Cooperative Banks at state level and District central cooperative banks.
• PACS are outside the purview of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, and hence not regulated by RBI.
• Around 63,000 PACS are functional in India; providing various facilities such as input facilities, agricultural implements, and storage facilities.
• About 50 percent of the country’s population is associated with cooperatives in one way or the other.