The union cooperative ministry which came into being recently is busy drafting a new national cooperative policy and in this connection Union Minister Amit Shah has called the meeting of stakeholders from across states in Delhi on 12-13 April, 2022.
The conference will be inaugurated by the Union Home & Cooperation Minister, Shri Amit Shah. The Minister of State for Cooperation, Shri B. L. Varma will also be present, according to a PIB release.
Ever since Amit Shah took over as the Minister of cooperation, he has addressed several co-op conferences in which co-operators have participated. But this is his first meeting with the bureaucrats of the cooperative department cutting across ministries and states.
More than two dozen Central Ministries represented by Secretaries and Joint Secretaries, all State Governments and Union Territories represented by their Chief Secretaries, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Registrar Cooperatives and heads of around 40 Cooperative and other major National Institutions will participate in this conference.
This conference is structured into following six important themes covering not only the whole life cycle of cooperatives, but also touching upon all facets of their business and governance.
These six themes include Present legal framework, identification of regulatory policy, operational barriers and measures required for their removal, leading to Ease of Doing Business and providing a level playing field to cooperatives and other economic entities.
The sessions will also focus on Reforms for strengthening governance including cooperative principles, democratic member control, increasing member participation, transparency, regular elections, HR Policy, leveraging International and National best practices, account keeping & auditing.
Making cooperatives vibrant economic entities by strengthening infrastructure, strengthening equity base, access to capital, diversification of activities, promoting entrepreneurship, promoting Branding, Marketing, Business plan development, innovation, technology adoption and exports are some other areas of focus of the conclave.
The subject also includes Training, Education, knowledge sharing and awareness building including mainstreaming cooperatives, linking training with entrepreneurship, inclusion of Women, Youth & Weaker Sections.
Promoting new cooperatives, revitalizing defunct ones, promoting cooperation among cooperatives, increasing membership, formalizing collectives, developing cooperatives for sustainable growth, mitigating regional imbalances and exploring new sectors Promoting social cooperatives and role of cooperatives in social security, are areas of focus for the new Ministry, read the govt release.
Under the guidance of the Union Home & Cooperation Minister, Shri Amit Shah the Ministry is going to organize a series of such conferences with different stakeholders, this being the first.
Shortly, another workshop is proposed with all Cooperative Federations to invite their views. These efforts will culminate in the formulation of a new robust National Cooperation Policy, giving impetus to strengthen the cooperative based economic model in the country to realize the vision and mantra of Sahkar Se Samaridhi, of the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, concludes the release.