The ICA Director General Mr Charles Gould came calling to the IFFCO headquarters at Saket, N Delhi on Tuesday. Mr Gould was accompanied by the Regional Director Mr Balu Iyer.
The IFFCO Managing Director Mr US Awasthi received him and the Director of Cooperative Development Dr G N Saxena was also there to welcome the international guest.
The leaders met in a congenial atmosphere where the IFFCO MD gave bouquet of flowers to Mr Gould.
Earlier, Mr Gould had showered praise on the IFFCO during the 17th Vaikunthbhai Mehta lecture where he said the IFFCO is the first of its kind in the world. When we included new parameters to come up with the top 300 cooperatives of the world we were surprised to find IFFCO topping the list leaving behind even the Desjardins, the largest cooperative financial group in Canada, Mr Gould said.
Though apparently it was a courtesy call but the meeting could not ignore the perception of growing distance between the two organizations. An Iffco source later said that efforts at rapprochement were indeed made.
Iffco MD Mr Awasthi reportedly broached the issue of one of its Board members Aditya Yadav’s nomination in the leadership circle of ICA and expected latter to help him find grooves.
The youngest Director on Board of IFFCO was nominated to ICA body soon after the new Board of Iffco was elected.
Readers would recall that the IFFCO’s bid to enter the Board of ICA was foiled last year due to both domestic and international factors. Knowledgeable cooperators say it is as much a loss to the ICA as it is to the IFFCO.
