Land Tokenization ? A Cooperative by Another Name ?

 Dear Fadnavisji,

Congratulations on the bold announcement of new legislation for land tokenization in Maharashtra. This is a progressive reform that has the potential to fundamentally redefine how citizens engage with infrastructure and land-based assets.

Maharashtra CM Fadnavis announces legislation for land tokenisation

As I have long been passionate about democratizing access to large-scale assets, this development resonates deeply with concepts I have explored in my own writing.

For several years, I have advocated for a "Cooperative Farming of Solar Power" (CFSP) model. My proposal centers on the idea of establishing solar farms in remote areas, where the infrastructure is fragmented into "ownership rights" for individual solar panel modules. This structure allows urban dwellers to "buy" capacity—essentially owning a share of a remote farm—and offset their own electricity consumption against the power generated. I have envisioned this operating similarly to our successful dairy cooperatives, like AMUL, managed through a collective ownership structure integrated with a national solar exchange to handle the complex billing and credit requirements.

Furthermore, regarding the sensitive issue of land acquisition for major infrastructure projects, I have previously suggested an equity-based solution to ensure farmers remain stakeholders in the assets built on their land. My proposal involved creating a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for each project, where land-donating farmers would receive shares in a cooperative society that, in turn, holds equity in the project’s SPV. This approach was designed to move beyond one-time cash compensation, allowing farmers to benefit from long-term value appreciation and maintain a sense of ownership and participation in the project's lifecycle.

It is heartening to see these principles—fractional ownership and equitable participation in infrastructure—gaining momentum in policy circles. I believe your focus on tokenization will provide a robust mechanism to scale these ideas, creating new pathways for both rural land-owners and urban investors to participate in the state's growth.

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Sources

#	Title	Date	About
1	LAND ACQUISITION SOLUTION	2016-02-19	Proposed SPV equity model for farmers to maintain long-term ownership in infrastructure projects.
2	Congratulations, Shri R K Singhji	2020-11-19	Detailed the CFSP model for large-scale solar farms and individual module ownership.
3	Choices to Buy : Choices to Sell ?	2021-08-01	Outlined standard modules for CFSP and the need for a National Solar Exchange.
4	Greening, The Cooperative Way / Solar Cooperative of Gujarat	2022-06-06	Advocated for solar cooperatives modeled on AMUL to allow consumer collective ownership.
5	Rooftop Solar Business Model	2024-10-01	Discussed scaling CFSP via DISCOM integration and public-sector cooperative farms.