Amul and IFFCO secure top global ranks in the ICA World Cooperative Monitor 2025, highlighting India’s strong cooperative sector, rural empowerment, and inclusive development model.
India’s Cooperatives Shine Globally: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) & Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) Take Top Spots
In a landmark recognition for India’s cooperative sector, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (better known by its brand name Amul) and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) have dominated the global cooperatives ranking. The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) World Cooperative Monitor 2025 placed Amul at Rank 1 globally, while IFFCO secured Rank 2.
This achievement highlights the strength of India’s cooperative model and its capacity to deliver economic benefits across rural areas, food systems and agricultural value-chains.
What the Ranking Means
The ICA’s World Cooperative Monitor evaluates cooperatives based on multiple criteria — such as turnover relative to GDP per capita, adherence to cooperative principles (democratic governance, collective ownership, profit-sharing) and socio-economic impact (jobs created, rural upliftment, contribution to food security). The 2025 list was officially announced at the ICA’s CM50 Conference held in Doha, Qatar.
That India’s two cooperatives achieved the top two places signals not just business performance but inclusive development impact.
Why Amul Stood Out
Amul is managed by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and operates on a three-tier cooperative model linking village level producers, district level unions and the federation. Some key strengths include:
- Empowering more than 3.6 million rural milk producers (mostly small and marginal farmers).
- Ensuring stable prices and consistent incomes for producers by value-addition and efficient marketing.
- Emerging as a global symbol of food security, self-reliance and cooperative excellence in dairy.
Why IFFCO Gained Recognition
IFFCO is one of India’s largest fertiliser and agro-inputs cooperatives, reaching over 55 million farmers through its network of member societies. Salient features include:
- Sustainable production of fertilisers and agro-inputs, combined with farmer outreach via digital tools.
- Reinvestment of profits into community development, green technologies and rural education — reflecting its cooperative ethos of purpose beyond profit.
- Demonstrating how cooperatives can be both commercially competitive and socially inclusive.
National Significance of the Achievement
This global recognition of Amul and IFFCO is aligned with the Indian government’s cooperative-centric policy vision under the Ministry of Cooperation.For India, this is significant because:
- It reinforces the institutional strength of cooperatives in rural economies and agriculture.
- It underscores inclusive capitalism — where profits are returned to producers rather than external shareholders. Amul and IFFCO model this approach.
- It gives India a leadership platform in global cooperative governance and in the context of the International Year of Cooperatives 2025, as cooperatives are seen to contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate-resilience agendas.
Implications for Students Preparing for Competitive Exams
For aspirants of banking, civil services, railways, defence and teaching exams, this news is valuable from multiple angles:
- Current affairs significance: It underscores India’s growing scale and performance in agriculture, rural economy and cooperative sectors — all relevant for General Studies.
- Economic & developmental dimension: The cooperative model here intersects with rural livelihood, food security, agribusiness and inclusive growth — frequently tested topics in exams.
- Governance and institutional aspect: Cooperatives with strong governance, democratic structure and social ethos tie into themes of public policy, governance frameworks, institutional reforms.
- Global ranking and India’s position: Knowing India’s top ranking indicators and international standing can help in essay-type, descriptive, and General Studies answers.
- Sectoral relevance: For those preparing for posts in agriculture departments, rural development, industry, cooperatives or allied areas, this provides a live case study of best-practices.
In sum, the dominance of Amul and IFFCO in the ICA World Cooperative Monitor 2025 is more than a headline — it reflects deep institutional change, rural transformation and India’s rise in global cooperative governance.
Why This News Is Important
Reinforcing India’s Rural and Cooperative Strength
This achievement by Amul and IFFCO signifies that India’s cooperative sector is not just large in scale but also competitive internationally. With Amul ranked first and IFFCO second globally in the ICA World Cooperative Monitor 2025, India’s institutions are demonstrating benchmark practices in inclusive growth, farmer empowerment and cooperative governance. Such milestones help bolster rural incomes, strengthen supply-chains (especially dairy and fertilisers) and contribute to national goals of self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat) and food security.
Relevance for Governance, Policy and Exam Aspirants
For students preparing for government exams across sectors, this news offers multiple cross-cutting themes: agricultural cooperatives, rural development, cooperative governance, public policy reform, India’s global standing, and inclusive economic models. These topics feature often in General Studies papers of civil services and other competitive exams. Understanding the why and how behind this ranking gives aspirants richer content for essays, policy-analysis and interview discussions.
Global Recognition Strengthens India’s Soft Power
Beyond domestic significance, the ranking positions India as a leader in the cooperative economic model on the world stage. It strengthens India’s soft power in multilateral forums and cooperation structures, aligning with themes of sustainable development, climate resilience (through rural livelihoods) and global governance of cooperatives. That amplifies the relevance of this news for aspirants in international relations or any domain of general awareness.
Historical Context
Cooperatives in India have a long and evolving history. The cooperative movement began formally during the colonial era with the enactment of the Cooperative Credit Societies Act in 1904, aimed at providing credit to farmers. Since then, cooperatives have grown to cover dairy (famously the white revolution led by Verghese Kurien and the creation of Amul in the 1940s-50s), fertiliser, agro-inputs, consumer goods, housing and rural supply-chains.
Over the decades, policy reforms such as the Cooperatives Act and state-level cooperative reforms have sought to democratise governance, expand membership, and improve transparency. The dairy cooperative model of Amul became a global template — linking millions of small producers to markets, assuring remunerative price and enabling value-addition. Similarly, fertiliser cooperatives like IFFCO emerged in the 1960s-70s as farmer-owned entities to secure inputs and industrial scale.
In recent times, the establishment of the Ministry of Cooperation (2021) signalled renewed focus on restructuring and strengthening cooperatives across India. With globalisation and sustainability imperatives, cooperatives have been repositioned not just as rural financial or production entities but as key players in inclusive growth, climate‐resilient supply‐chains and community ownership.
The ranking by the ICA World Cooperative Monitor thus builds on decades of evolution in the cooperative movement and marks a milestone in India’s global leadership in this domain.
Key Takeaways from India’s Cooperatives Global Ranking
| S. No. | Key Takeaway |
|---|---|
| 1 | The ICA World Cooperative Monitor 2025 ranked Amul (GCMMF) first globally, and IFFCO second globally among cooperatives. |
| 2 | The ranking criteria include turnover relative to GDP per capita, cooperative governance principles, social and economic impact. |
| 3 | Amul empowers over 3.6 million rural milk producers and operates a three-tier cooperative network linking villages to markets. |
| 4 | IFFCO serves over 55 million farmers via its cooperative network and reinvests profits in community development, green tech and rural education. |
| 5 | This achievement strengthens India’s rural economic model, supports government goals of inclusive growth and food security, and elevates India’s position in global cooperative governance. |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the ICA World Cooperative Monitor?
The ICA World Cooperative Monitor is an annual global ranking published by the International Cooperative Alliance that evaluates cooperative organizations based on their turnover, economic contribution, membership, and adherence to cooperative principles.
2. Which Indian cooperatives topped the global cooperative rankings?
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) secured the first position, and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) secured the second position in the ICA World Cooperative Monitor 2025 rankings.
3. Why is Amul considered a successful cooperative model?
Amul operates on a democratic three-tier cooperative structure involving village-level milk producers, district unions, and state-level federations, ensuring fair pricing, value addition, and strong market linkage for farmers.
4. What makes IFFCO globally significant?
IFFCO serves over 55 million farmers and reinvests its profits into rural development, agricultural education, and environmentally sustainable farming technologies, making it both socially and economically impactful.
5. Why is this achievement important for competitive exam aspirants?
This topic is relevant under Indian economy, agriculture, cooperative movement, and public policy sections of general awareness and General Studies papers, making it useful for banking, UPSC, SSC, Railways, Police, Defence, and state PSC exams.
6. How does the cooperative model support rural development in India?
Cooperatives distribute profits among members, create rural employment, stabilize farmer incomes, and build community-based economic systems focused on inclusion and sustainability.
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