NCUI collaborates with Google Cloud to empower Indian cooperatives

The 17th Indian Cooperative Congress (ICC), the prime gathering of the Indian Cooperative Movement, was organized by the National Cooperative Union of India. The event took place on 1-2 July 2023 at the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC), Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, coinciding with International Cooperative Day. During the inaugural session, the esteemed Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi unveiled a dedicated e-commerce application specifically designed for Cooperatives.

NCUI is an apex organization of the Cooperative movement in India which is responsible for the education and training of more than 8.5 lakh Cooperatives in India. With a total membership of more than 30 crore people. NCUI was looking for a scalable platform like Google Cloud to host this e-commerce application for its users. The e-commerce platform was built on Google Cloud and will provide a scalable, easy-to-use, and robust technology for the economic empowerment of the Cooperatives; their members by providing easy access to currently inaccessible buyers.

The platform will help the Cooperatives to sell their products across geographies without any intermediaries. The platform will also provide complete training and capacity-building support to the Cooperatives for onboarding on the portal and in areas of packaging, branding; accessing the welfare schemes of the government.

The e-commerce application will offer an extensive platform to the vast community of Cooperatives enabling them to sell their products and services to a larger group of people including their Cooperative members. This partnership will promote economic growth, development, and a common platform for all the small Cooperatives to compete in the market of big players. Furthermore, it will also enable consumers to choose the right product under their preferred price segment.

Dr. Sudhir Mahajan, Chief Executive, NCUI said, “Powered by robust and scalable technology, the launch of the E-commerce application will enable Cooperatives and their members to easily access to buy and sell their products to buyers across the country. We are positive our partnership with Google Cloud will enable us on our digital transformation journey and economically empower the Cooperatives.”

Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director, of Google Cloud India said, “NCUI were seeking a cloud partner who could offer scalability, open-source technology, and a collaborative approach to enhance their operations. We are confident that our cloud platform will provide a seamless experience for their users. We strongly believe that our partnership will provide NCUI with powerful technology solutions, which will help in the economic growth and empowerment of both the Cooperatives and their members.”

In anticipation of growing user numbers and their evolving needs, NCUI made the strategic decision to collaborate with Google Cloud. By harnessing Google Cloud's scalable, open-source, user-friendly, and standardized cloud platform, NCUI aims to meet the demands effectively. Furthermore, Working in partnership with Vina Tech Solutions, a Google Cloud partner, NCUI successfully designed and developed the application on the Google Cloud platform. Consequently, With a vision to extend the reach of this pilot project, NCUI, and Google Cloud have plans to expand to other regions shortly.