RBI Central Board Director and senior cooperator Satish Marathe virtually delivered the inaugural address to trainers participating in a specially designed programme on Capacity Building and Training for Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
The programme aims to strengthen PACS, which are being transformed into multi-purpose cooperative societies empowered to undertake more than 25 rural economic activities.
Highlighting the evolving role of PACS, Marathe said that diversification beyond agricultural lending would enable societies to provide financial and other doorstep services to farmers and rural youth engaged in non-farm activities.
He noted that the expansion of activities is expected to increase business volumes and improve the financial health of PACS, helping them emerge as stronger grassroots cooperative institutions in rural India. The initiative also seeks to enhance the managerial and operational capabilities of cooperative personnel through focused training and capacity-building efforts.
The programme has been jointly curated by the Government of Gujarat and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, with coordination by Apurva Mehta.
The training initiative is being conducted under the “Cooperative Leadership Lab,” an innovative platform focused on grassroots cooperative training and leadership development.
Ranjan Kumar Ghosh is the Principal Investigator of the project, while Rajesh Chandwani serves as the Co-Principal Investigator.