The Centre’s decision to carve out a separate ministry of cooperation from the agriculture ministry might not only boost creation of multi-state cooperatives in the country, but also bring much-needed transparency and fairness in the functioning of the cooperatives, which so far have been riddled with allegations of political interference and mismanagement, experts and sector watchers said.

       India at present has a vast network of around 800,000 registered cooperative societies with whom around 400 million people are directly associated. However, of these societies, only about ...