CDS (II) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 112 of 120

Correct — C, Ministry of Cooperation. The Ministry of Cooperation was created on 6 July 2021, and Amit Shah took charge of it as its first Cabinet Minister the following day, holding the portfolio alongside Home Affairs. The Finance Minister had announced the intention to set up a separate administrative structure for cooperatives in the Union budget presented earlier that year, and the new ministry took over work that had until then been done inside the Ministry of Agriculture. Its stated purpose is to give the cooperative sector a separate administrative, legal and policy framework, to strengthen cooperatives at the grassroots and to streamline the working of multi-state cooperative societies, under the motto sahkar se samriddhi, prosperity through cooperation. Being four months old when this paper was written, it was the obvious answer to a question about a recently formed ministry.

• (a)Ministry of New and Renewable Energy — A long-established ministry rather than a new one; India's renewable energy administration has had its own ministry for decades, under this name and an earlier one.
• (b)Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region — Also an older creation, set up to give the north-eastern states a dedicated ministry at the centre. Not formed in the period the question is asking about.
• (d)Ministry of Jal Shakti — The strongest distractor, because it is genuinely recent — but it was already in place by September 2019, when it launched the ten-year rural sanitation strategy. It was formed by merging the water resources and the drinking water and sanitation portfolios, and by 2021 it was no longer new.

Cooperatives are member-owned enterprises — credit societies, dairy unions, sugar mills, marketing federations, housing societies — and they occupy a peculiar constitutional position. Cooperative societies are a State subject, so most cooperatives are registered and regulated under State law, while those operating across State lines are governed by the central Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act. The 97th Amendment of 2011 inserted the right to form cooperative societies into Article 19(1)(c) and added Part IXB, of which the courts later struck down parts as trespassing on State legislative power.

The item rewards a sense of how recent 'recently' is, and the way to build it is to keep a short list of new ministries and departments in date order rather than a vague impression of newness. Of the four here, three had existed for years and one was months old at the time of the exam. It is also worth knowing why a separate ministry raised debate: because cooperative societies are a State subject, a central ministry for them was read by some State governments as an encroachment, and the ministry's own framing has been that it will strengthen the sector rather than take over State regulation. The ministry has since produced a national cooperation policy exercise and legislation amending the multi-state cooperative law.

• The Ministry of Cooperation was created on 6 July 2021, and Amit Shah became its first Cabinet Minister on 7 July 2021.
• Its creation was announced by the Finance Minister in the Union budget for 2021-22.
• Cooperative work had until then been handled within the Ministry of Agriculture.
• Its motto is sahkar se samriddhi, and its stated aims include a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for cooperatives and streamlined working for multi-state societies.
• Cooperative societies are a State subject; the 97th Amendment of 2011 added the right to form them to Article 19(1)(c) and inserted Part IXB, parts of which were later struck down.

• Treating any ministry you have heard of recently as recently created; Jal Shakti feels new but predates this by two years.
• Forgetting that cooperative societies are a State subject, which is the source of the debate about a central ministry.
• Confusing the announcement in the budget with the date of creation; the ministry came into being in July, not on budget day.

As a which-is-new item on ministries, or as a match between ministries and the schemes or laws they administer.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who became the first Cabinet Minister of the newly created Ministry of Cooperation in 2021?

  • (a)Nirmala Sitharaman
  • (b)Narendra Singh Tomar
  • (c)Amit Shah
  • (d)Piyush Goyal

  Answer(c) Amit Shah — he took charge on 7 July 2021, the day after the ministry was created, holding it along with Home Affairs.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Constitution of India, 'cooperative societies' is a subject in which List?

  • (a)Union List
  • (b)State List
  • (c)Concurrent List
  • (d)It is not mentioned in any List

  Answer(b) State List — which is why a separate central ministry for cooperatives was debated, and why societies working across State lines are covered by a distinct central law.