Union home minister Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: Home and cooperation minister Amit Shah Monday launched ‘Sahkar Digi-Pay’ and ‘Sahkar Digi-Loan’ Apps – a digital platform enabling quick, paperless, and transparent access to loans and credit for cooperative members across India – at International Conference on Urban Cooperative Credit Sector, and said efforts should be made to establish an urban cooperative bank within next five years in every town with a population of over two lakh. “With the advent of the new era of digital payments in India, even the smallest urban cooperative societies will now be able to connect through these apps. To facilitate this, umbrella organisations will need to proactively form dedicated teams and aggressively drive the initiative forward,” Shah said while addressing the two-day conference ‘Co-Op Kumbh 2025’. “Digi Pay is the need of the hour. We know payment modes have changed. There is increasing adoption of digital payment, and if urban cooperative banks do not match, they will be out of the race,” Shah said, setting a target of onboarding 1,500 banks to the platform within two years. Highlighting govt’s efforts to professionalise urban cooperative banks (UCBs) and cooperative credit societies, Shah said the move has succeeded in reducing Non-Performing Assets (NPA) from 2.8% to 0.06% in two years. The minister set an ambitious target for National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks & Credit Societies Limited to establish at least one additional UCB in every town with a population exceeding two lakh within five years. Shah directed federation to convert successful cooperative credit societies into UCBs.