Recently, A MoU was signed between the Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry
of Electronics and Information Technology, NABARD and CSC e-Governance
Services India Limited, for PACS to soon start providing services like the
one offered by Common Service Centres (CSC).
Significance:
PACS are the soul of cooperatives and will enable ‘Sahkar Se Samridhi’
for rural development.
Making PACS multipurpose as providers of about 20 services will increase
employment opportunities in rural areas.
50 per cent of the country’s population is associated with cooperatives
in one way or the other.
What are PACS?
It is a village-level institution that works directly with rural
residents.
It encourages agriculturists to save, accepts deposits from them, makes
loans to deserving borrowers, and collects repayments.
There are around 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies.
The recent Budget (2023-24) has made a provision to make 2 lakh PACS in
the next 5 years and create a multi-purpose PACS in every Panchayat.
Three-tier system - Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)
at the village level, Central Cooperative Banks (CCBs) at the district level
and State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) at the State level.
PACS are outside the purview of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, and
therefore not regulated by RBI.
What are Common service centres (CSC)?
Common Service Centres are the access points for delivery of essential
public utility services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial,
education and agriculture services, apart from host of Business to Consumer
(B2C) services to citizens in rural and remote areas of the country.
