The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) organized a two-day conference on the theme ‘National Meet of Rural Cooperative Banks’ at Bankers’ Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) in Lucknow.
NAFSCOB Chairman Dileepbhai Sanghani who was also invited to the conference, expounded at length on the challenges before cooperatives and the role of apex body of state cooperative banks in uplifting the rural folks from crass poverty.
Among others, the conference was also attended by Nabard Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala and Vasudha Mishra, Special Secretary, MoA & FW, GOI. Participants from several state cooperative banks and DCCBs were also present on the occasion.
In his speech, Sanghani said Rural Cooperative Banks have been playing an important role in the development of agriculture and allied sectors for more than hundred years. The Union Government during 2017-18 announced financial package for computerization of PACS, there is a need to speed up the implementation of the same, he demanded.
Listing out the challenges being faced by Rural Cooperative Banks, Sanghani said adoption of Information Technology, Core Banking Solution, Micro ATM, Membership of Credit Information Companies (CICs), Cyber Security and Information Security Policy, Mobile Banking, Asset Liability Management is a challenge that needs to be resolved.
“There is also a need to adopt good practices and good governance in cooperative banks for survival in a competitive banking industry”, he asserted.
He suggested Nabard should adopt suitable strategies to help cooperatives overcome their problem areas which include the need for enhancing their share in agricultural lending. Sanghani requested Nabard to extend necessary support to address all challenges before Rural Cooperative Banks.
Speaking about the Nafscob, he said it is playing a very important role in protecting the interests of Short-Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS) in India. Nafscob also prepared important documents viz., Operational Manual for Cooperatives, Model Risk Management Policy for SCBs, and Model Information Security Policy of SCBs”, he said.
Nafscob with support from Nabard recently prepared a Human Resource (HR) Policy for PACS and circulated to all stakeholders in the country.
Further, Operational Guidelines for Implementation of the HR Policy for PACS was also circulated to all stakeholders including Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories and Registrar of Cooperative Societies of all States, Regional Offices of NABARD, all member SCBs, select DCCBs etc, Sanghani said.
Several sessions were held during the two-day conference which was addressed by experts. Discussions were held on Technology adoption in rural credit cooperatives, corporate governance in the digital era, good governance practices and other topics.
