• Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh launched the ‘Kapas Kisan app’, a new mobile application developed by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) under the Ministry of Textiles.

• It aims to facilitate seamless procurement of cotton from farmers under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) scheme.

• The new mobile app empowers farmers with self-registration, slot booking and payment tracking. 

• This app provides facility of payment tracking by farmers — bringing greater transparency, convenience and speed to the cotton procurement process.

• The app will help to:

i) Protect cotton farmers against any distress sales through assured MSP procurement.

ii) Reduce manual paperwork and save time at procurement centres. 

iii) Enhance transparency and improve planning by allowing farmers to choose convenient time slots.

Key features of the app include:

i) Farmers can securely register themselves for selling cotton under MSP.

ii) Digital scheduling at designated procurement centres to reduce waiting time and crowding.

iii) Real-time status updates on quality assessment, accepted quantities, payment processing.

iv) User-friendly interface with support for multiple Indian languages.

Cotton Corporation of India (CCI)

• The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) was established on July 31, 1970 under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles as a Public Sector Undertaking under the Companies Act, 1956.

• Ever-since its inception, the CCI has been operating in competition with private cotton traders and other institutional buyers, its market share varying from 5 per cent to 8 per cent except in some years under MSP operations when it has gone up to 31 per cent.

• With the changing cotton scenario, the role and functions of the Corporation were reviewed and revised from time to time. 

• As per the policy directives received from the Ministry of Textiles in 1985, the CCI is the sole agency of the government for undertaking Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations, whenever the prices of kapas (seed cotton) fall below the MSP level. 

• The Corporation has a pan-Indian presence through headquarters at CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra), 19 branches and more than 400 cotton procurement centres in all major cotton growing states.

• Besides MSP operations, to fulfil the raw material requirement of the domestic textile industry, particularly during lean season, the Corporation undertakes commercial purchase operations at its own risk. 

Key objectives of CCI are:

i) To undertake price support operations, whenever the market prices of kapas falls below the MSP announced by the government without any quantitative limit.

ii) To undertake commercial operations only at CCI’s own risk.