A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ROLE OF COOPERATIVES IN SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

The process of rural development is a most complex and critical issue. This need to be transforming the entire rural environment and it requires a collective effort of the governments, organisations and people’s participation. The rural development is to transform the whole lifestyle and thinking of the rural community. The meaning of rural development is nothing but, the development of all the economic activities, which are the rural community, depends for their livelihood in India, mainly, the development of agriculture and its allied activities, handicrafts, small scale industries and major infrastructure activities. In India, the most significant division of economy is agriculture. Indian agriculture sector is accounts for about 17.32 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and which provides employment to about 47% of the countries workforce. India is the world’s major agricultural commodity producer and it has emerged as the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. It is generally said that agriculture in India is a backbone for rural as well as Indian Economy. The contribution of agriculture in the early two decades towards the total national output is between 48% and 60%. The 2nd advance estimates for production of major crops for 2017-18 released by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare suggest record aggregate food grains production in 2017-18. The total food grain production estimates touch a record high of 277.49mn tonnes. But at the same time the Indian agriculture sector as well as the rural development surrounded by the number of problems, majorly marketing, lack of agriculture finances, lack of infrastructure, where housing/cold storage, fluctuation in prices, etc. In making the provisions of basic needs and supply of agriculture finances the Cooperative institutions are playing very vital role. The present paper is tries to do an attempt to critical evaluation of the role of cooperative institutions in sustainable rural development in the Indian economy and also focused on the different types of cooperatives, role of cooperatives and their contribution towards rural development andthe major problems associated with the cooperative institutions