Jammu, Aug 5: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that the Centre was complementing the efforts of the J&K administration through a multi-pronged strategy aimed at strengthening the viability, governance and operational capacity of cooperative institutions.

He stated that as on July 15, 2026, 1,611 new cooperative societies were registered in Jammu and Kashmir, comprising 232 multipurpose Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACSs), 1,339 Dairy Cooperative Societies and 40 Fishery Cooperative Societies.

“Further, 760 existing Dairy Cooperative Societies and one Fishery Cooperative Society have been strengthened,” Shah informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to the question of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sat Paul Sharma.

Sat Sharma asked if the central government prepared a roadmap to revive non-functional cooperative societies in Jammu and Kashmir; the financial and administrative measures taken to strengthen cooperative institutions in remote and border areas and the initiatives undertaken to strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Shah stated that to facilitate objective and continuous assessment of cooperative societies, the Ministry of Cooperation launched the Cooperative Ranking Framework on January 24, 2025 and shared it with the States and UTs.

This framework provides standardized parameters—including audit compliance, financial performance, and operational activities—that enable the State Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) to conduct independent assessments and take necessary steps to strengthen societies at the State, district, and block levels. Revival of non-functional cooperative societies is undertaken by the respective state governments and UT administrations in accordance with the applicable Cooperative Societies Acts, Rules and bye-laws.

“Further, the Ministry is complementing the efforts of the UT Administration through a multi-pronged strategy aimed at strengthening the viability, governance and operational capacity of cooperative institutions. The measures include computerization and digital profiling of PACS; adoption of model bye-laws enabling PACS to undertake more than 25 business activities; formation of new multipurpose PACS, dairy and fishery cooperative societies in uncovered areas; capacity building and business diversification; and institutional support through the sub-office of the National Cooperative Development Corporation in Jammu and Kashmir,” Amit Shah asserted.

He stated that the Union Territory of J&K was also included within the operational framework of the Sardar Patel Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited to facilitate organized milk procurement, modern dairy practices and improved market linkages.

Under the centrally sponsored project for computerisation of PACS, according to Shah, functional PACS are being brought onto a common ERP-based national software to improve transparency, accounting, governance and operational efficiency.

“In Jammu and Kashmir, 708 PACS have been sanctioned for computerisation. As on July 15, 2026, hardware has been provided to 537 PACS, which have also been onboarded on the ERP platform and declared as e-PACS. Training programmes are also being conducted for PACS functionaries on governance, ERP operations, preparation of business plans, convergence with government schemes and diversification of activities,” Shah informed.

Further, PACSs, according to the Union Minister of Cooperation, are being enabled to function as Common Service Centres (CSCs) and agricultural-input service centres to improve access to digital services, banking, insurance and agricultural inputs in remote and border areas. “Linkages are also being facilitated with national-level cooperative societies engaged in exports, organic products and quality seeds,” the Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said.

New Delhi, Aug 05: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has identified 32 fake universities across the country as per its list published in February 2026, and the central government has asked states and union territories to take legal action against such institutions, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

This information was given by Minister of State for Education, Sukanta Majumdar, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

According to the Ministry of Education, the list of fake universities is available on the website of UGC at: https://www.ugc.gov.in/universitydetails/Fakeuniversity.

The minister said that education is in the concurrent list and both the Central Government and the State Governments work together for development of education in India. University Grants Commission (UGC) periodically publishes a list of fake Universities in India. As per the latest list published in February, 2026, 32 institutions have been identified as fake Universities.

He said the following actions have been undertaken by UGC with regard to self-styled or fake Universities:

Issued clarifications/compliance letters/show-cause/warning notices to the fake institutions.

Issued Public Notices on the UGC website to caution Students and Public at Large against such self-styled institutions.

The minister said the letters have been issued to the Chief Secretaries, Education Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of the concerned States/UTs, requesting them to take suitable action against such self-styled fake universities/institutions and to register FIR against these self-styled educational institutions which are operating in violation of the UGC Act, 1956.

Further, the Central Government has requested the Chief Secretaries of all State Governments and UT Administrations to take legal action for the closure of these institutions, and to take appropriate action against those involved in defrauding and cheating students by misrepresenting themselves as “Universities,” awarding degrees, and using the word “University” with their name. They were also requested to inform the Central Government/UGC of any other fake universities functioning in their States/UTs that are not included in the UGC’s list of fake universities.

New Delhi, Aug 05: The policies of the Government are aimed at ensuring an open, safe, trusted and accountable internet for its users, including women and children. The Government is committed to ensure that the Internet in India is free from any form of unlawful content or information, particularly vulgar and obscene content.

Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules) together provide a comprehensive framework to deal with unlawful and harmful content in the digital space and impose clear obligations on intermediaries to ensure accountability.

The IT Rules, 2021 casts due-diligence obligations on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries to make reasonable efforts to ensure that users of their computer resources do not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that is obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, harmful to child, invasive of privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender or violates any law for the time being in force. In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, they lose their exemption from third party information provided under section 79 of the IT Act. They are liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any extant law.

On 10th February 2026, the Government strengthened the regulatory framework by amending the IT Rules to address harms arising from synthetically generated information (SGI), including deepfakes and AI-generated content.

As per the amendments, intermediaries and large social media platforms are required to deploy reasonable technical measures to prevent the creation and dissemination of unlawful AI-generated content, including content that is obscene, misleading, impersonating individuals, or harmful to children. Platforms are also obligated to report to appropriate authorities about the related offences under laws that mandates reporting such as Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, or the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

The ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ (NCRP) ( has been launched, as a part of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), to enable public to report incidents pertaining to all types of cybercrimes. NCRP includes provisions for reporting certain categories of cyber offences against women and children in an anonymous manner. Under the “Report Women/Child Related Crime” module, complainants may choose the “Report Anonymously” option, which allows submission of complaints without disclosure of personal identity details.

NCRP has introduced a module titled as ‘Report and Check Suspect’ to enable citizens to report suspicious website URLs, WhatsApp numbers/telegram handles, phone numbers, e-mail ids, SMS headers/numbers, deep fakes and social media URLs.

The Government has released financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 132.93 crores under the ‘Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)’ Scheme, to the States/UTs for their capacity building such as setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring of junior cyber consultants and training of LEAs’ personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers. Cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 33 States/UTs and more than 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.

Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs imparted Cyber Hygiene training to more than 2 lakh NCC, NSS & NYKS Students across the country.

I4C has released ‘Handbook for Adolescents/Students’ aimed at educating the students on the prevention of cybercrime and ‘Cyber Security Handbook for Mahila Suraksha’ to promote awareness among women.

The Government is implementing a project on ‘Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA)’ for generating human resources in Information Security and creating general awareness on various aspects of cyber hygiene & cyber security among the masses.

The information was provided by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. L. Murugan, in a written reply to a question asked by Prabhakar Reddy Vemireddy in the Lok Sabha today.

New Delhi, Aug 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the lives of people in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have witnessed wide-ranging transformation, with expansion of infrastructure and growth in opportunities in education, healthcare, entrepreneurship and sports sectors.

On the seventh anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, Modi said the Centre remains committed to the development of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and to ensuring that every citizen has the opportunity to “dream big, achieve and contribute” to the making of a Viksit Bharat.

He said infrastructure in the two Union Territories has expanded, while opportunities in areas such as education, healthcare, entrepreneurship and sports have grown.

Be it women or marginalised communities, those who were denied their basic constitutional rights for decades have been empowered thanks to the full application of the Constitution of India, Modi added.

In a post on X, the prime minister said, “Seven years ago, on this day, Articles 370 and 35(A) became history, marking a decisive new chapter in the journey of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh…”

On August 5, 2019, the BJP-led Centre abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

“We reaffirm our commitment to the progress of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh and to ensure that every citizen has the opportunity to dream big, achieve and contribute to the making of a Viksit Bharat,” he added.

PM Modi said “August 5 this year assumes even greater significance as this is the year the nation commemorates the 125th birth anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee”.

“His lifelong commitment to national unity continues to inspire generations. What he envisioned decades ago found historic fulfilment on 5th August 2019,” he said.

Mookerjee was the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the precursor of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He had fought for full integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India by scrapping Article 370.

Born on July 6, 1901, Mookerjee died under detention on June 23, 1953 in Srinagar.