Bala Subramaniyam Aiyer, India born US citizen has emerged as the final choice to head the ICA Asia-Pacific. The competition among the six candidates was fierce and the selectors had a hard time zeroing in on Aiyer.
Mr Aiyer would be replacing Dr Chan Ho Choi whose three years of tenure saw reduced ICA activities in this region. Aiyer is not an old hand at cooperatives but his global exposure coupled with experience of working with many prestigious NGOs including Action Aid made him the winner.
Bala Subramaniyam Iyer has done civil engineering from Durgapur and post-graduation from IRMA. His CV also boasts working for a short while with legendary Verghese Kurien. He also had a short stint in a lift-irrigation cooperative.
The selection panel comprised of the ICA President Pauline Green, Director General Charles Gould, NCUI Chief Executive Dr Dinesh and two representatives each from Japan and Australia.
The short-listed candidates were asked to give 10 minutes presentation and the Panel had set criteria such as experience with cooperatives, ability to carry the movement to a higher level, ability to work in a cross-cultural ambience, passion for cooperatives and so on and so forth.
Out of four short-listed candidates two belonged to India and the remaining two- to Japan and to Philippines. The second Indian candidate besides the winner was B K Mishra, the Managing Director of Fishcopfed.
Indian Cooperative has learnt that Mishra fared well and was rated high by the selection panel for his knowledge of fisheries cooperatives and his passion for working with them.
He was not however impressive when it came to cooperatives in general. Also his lack of experience in working in a cross-cultural setting might have finally knocked the bottom out of his chance.
Earlier, Indian Cooperative had predicted that Chan Ho Cho’s contract was not likely to renew and his removal from the high-profile job was a certainty.
Indian Cooperative had learnt that owing to his dismal performance, the top ICA officials in Geneva had decided to dispense with his services. Mr Choi had been in Delhi for close to three years and his contract ended in the last December.
Delhi’s office of ICA monitors cooperative affairs in several countries of Asia-Pacific which include Japan China, Korea and others.
Mr Chan Ho Choi, a Korean national had a lackluster tenure as he was not able to create the kind of impact his post warranted. He singularly failed to network with the cooperative bodies of India including NCUI or IFFCO.
The NCUI sources narrated the incident of arrival of the ICA President Dame Pauline Green to the Cooperative Congress in which Mr Choi played hardly any role. “Pauline was here despite Mr Choi wishing otherwise”.
Besides, his poor communications skills often lulled audience into sleep during cooperative seminars. In contrast, the US based Aiyer may be a whiff of change in this part of the world.