PIB TrackerNCDC's lending rises fivefold to Rs 1.28 lakh crore
At NCDC's 93rd General Council, the Cooperation Minister reviewed a lender whose annual disbursals rose from Rs 24,733 crore to Rs 1,27,596 crore in five years with zero net NPA, and asked for about Rs 4 lakh crore a year by 2030-31 - targets set by the minister, not yet a funded plan.
What happened
- The 93rd General Council of NCDC, chaired by Amit Shah, reviewed FY 2025-26: sanctions of Rs 1,55,408 crore, disbursals of Rs 1,27,596 crore, net profit of Rs 1,475 crore, recovery of 99.84 per cent and zero net NPA.
- Disbursals rose from Rs 24,733 crore (FY 2020-21) to Rs 1,27,596 crore - about fivefold; 3,339 units and projects sanctioned in 2025-26 reached 14,881 cooperative societies; cumulative disbursals since the Ministry of Cooperation's creation stand at Rs 4,14,586 crore.
- Targets cited: Rs 1.70 lakh crore (2026-27), Rs 2.10 lakh crore (2027-28), Rs 2.50 lakh crore (2028-29); Mr Shah asked for about Rs 3.50 lakh crore (2029-30) and Rs 4 lakh crore (2030-31), and a 25-year roadmap on structure and capital.
- The NCDC (Amendment) Act, 2026, gazetted on 14 August 2026, enables equity and share-capital support; a Rs 2,000 crore Central grant backs Rs 20,000 crore of market borrowing over four years (Rs 9,380 crore lent in 2025-26, Rs 6,172 crore in 2026-27).
- Other directions: consortium lending with NABARD and cooperative and commercial banks; North-East self-reliance in milk, eggs, fish and meat by 2030; circular-economy hubs for cooperative sugar mills; the Sahakar Navachar Yojana (grants up to Rs 25 lakh).
For Prelims
- NCDC: a statutory corporation under the NCDC Act, 1962, established on 14 March 1963 to finance cooperatives in production, processing, marketing and storage. It now sits under the Ministry of Cooperation, created in July 2021 from the Agriculture Ministry's cooperation division, with the motto 'Sahkar se Samriddhi'.
- Cooperatives and the Constitution: the 97th Amendment, 2011 added Part IXB on cooperative societies. In Union of India v Rajendra N. Shah (20 July 2021) the Supreme Court, 2:1, held Part IXB operative only for multi-State cooperatives, because it had not been ratified by the States under Article 368(2); State cooperatives remain a State subject.
- Net NPA: gross non-performing assets minus the provisions set aside against them. Zero net NPA means every bad loan is fully provided for; with 99.84 per cent recovery, NCDC reports a clean book for a lender whose borrowers are cooperatives.
- The 2026 amendment: the NCDC (Amendment) Act, 2026 widens how NCDC can help - through equity and share capital as well as loans - and opens new investment avenues. Equity changes the relationship: NCDC becomes a part-owner of the cooperatives it finances, not just a creditor.
- Leverage model: a Rs 2,000 crore grant from the Centre allows NCDC to mobilise Rs 20,000 crore from the market over four years - a tenfold multiplier - of which Rs 9,380 crore was lent in 2025-26 and Rs 6,172 crore in 2026-27 to 25 October.
- National cooperatives NCDC has backed: NCEL (exports), NCOL (organics), BBSSL (seeds), NUCFDC (umbrella organisation for Urban Cooperative Banks), Bharat Taxi and Sahakar Sarathi - multi-State societies the Minister expects to grow into large national institutions.
- Capacity and innovation: NCDC's LINAC (Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development) trained 21,688 participants in 227 programmes in 2025-26; the Sahakar Navachar Yojana gives 100 per cent grants of up to Rs 25 lakh from a Rs 10 crore corpus, 20 per cent earmarked for the North-East, hill areas and disadvantaged sections.
- The growth path asked for: Rs 1,27,596 crore (2025-26) to about Rs 4 lakh crore (2030-31) is roughly a tripling in five years. The Minister himself said dependence on government support and government banks limits that, hence the push for market borrowing and co-financing.
For UPSC: NCDC (NCDC Act 1962): FY 2025-26 disbursal Rs 1,27,596 crore, net profit Rs 1,475 crore, zero net NPA; NCDC (Amendment) Act 2026 permits equity support.
What it is NOT: The release gives no sector-wise or State-wise split of NCDC lending, so it cannot show how much reaches small farmers, fishers or women's cooperatives as against large sugar, dairy and multi-State enterprises. It gives no interest rates, no figure for how much of the book is backed by State Government guarantees, and no funding plan behind the Rs 4 lakh crore aspiration. It does not explain what 'zero net NPA' rests on in a portfolio lent to cooperatives, many of them State-guaranteed.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.1 · GS3.2 · Linkage L1
Anchor
Cooperatives need patient capital that commercial banks rarely give. NCDC has become that lender at scale - disbursals up fivefold in five years with zero net NPA - and the Government now wants it to triple again by 2030-31.
Substantiation (data)
Rs 1,27,596 crore disbursed in FY 2025-26 against Rs 24,733 crore in 2020-21; net profit Rs 1,475 crore; recovery 99.84 per cent; Rs 4,14,586 crore cumulative since 2021; targets rising to about Rs 4 lakh crore in 2030-31; equity powers under the NCDC (Amendment) Act, 2026.
Position
A dedicated cooperative financier, able to take equity and borrow from the market, can do what Amul-type institutions did for dairy across fisheries, sugar by-products and the North-East - provided it stays professionally run, as the Minister himself stressed.
Counterpoint
Rapid growth in a government-linked lender can hide risk: concentration in large cooperatives, reliance on State guarantees, and pressure to meet disbursal targets. Disbursal is an input; the release says little about the incomes of the members the money is meant to reach.
Way forward
Publish sector- and State-wise lending and the share going to primary societies; tie targets to member-level outcomes; build co-financing with NABARD and banks so risk is shared; and use the equity power sparingly, with clear exit rules.
Conclusion
NCDC's balance sheet is now strong enough to be ambitious. The test of 'Sahkar se Samriddhi' is whether that ambition shows up in small producers' earnings, not only in larger disbursal numbers.
Deploys into: Cooperative sector and rural credit · Development finance institutions · Cooperative federalism after the 97th Amendment · Inclusive growth
Ministry of Cooperation · 2026-10-29 · PRID 2330122 · PIB source ↗