Sahakar Bharati organized a Webinar on ”Relevance of Cooperatives Post lockdown” on Thursday which was attended by several eminent cooperators including former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member Suresh Prabhu who delivered the keynote address on the occasion.
In his keynote address Prabhu said, “Cooperatives can play an important role in making the citizens of India self-reliant because they are having a vast network where lakhs of people are directly connected with them. Co-ops should think about how to make their respective cooperatives shareholders self-reliant”, Prabhu added.
Prabhu urged cooperators to deliberate on how to strengthen the economy which means diverting their mind from agricultural activities and getting involved in non-farming activities. But one aspect the minister was disappointed about was the mismanagement in the cooperatives which has tarnished their image in a big way.
“Cooperatives of the country should be professionally managed. For instance, Amul is a big example for all which is professionally managed without any interference from the management. IFFCO is also doing well under the leadership of its MD Dr U S Awasthi. There is a need to think how co-ops can be professionally managed”, he asserted.
Praising the cooperatives in the world, Prabhu added that according to the United Nation report, cooperatives are managing the assets of 20 million dollar which is commendable. In his concluding remarks, he advocated bringing PACCs and self-help groups into the prominence.
Addressing the participants present from different parts of the country, Sahakar Bharati co-founder and RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe highlighted “Cooperatives have a vast network in which there are around 65 thousand PACCs which are viable and healthy and over 1.40 Primary level milk cooperatives which are doing well and diverting their business in other fields also”.
Marathe further said, for improving the financial inclusion in the country, there is a need to provide National Payment Gateway to these rural level cooperatives. In rural areas the income from the agriculture sector has come down to 35 percent whereas non-farming income have risen to 65 percent”, he underlined.
“For increasing the income from the agriculture sector, we should focus on setting up agro processing units. There is a need to establish farmer producers’ cooperatives. Besides, there is a need to focus on urban areas where consumer cooperatives can play an important role in providing essential items to the consumers”, he said.
On the occasion, giving the valedictory address, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi touched on several points especially on making ‘Super Cooperative Platform’ for raising the voice of cooperatives. This platform should be headed by Suresh Prabhu and should have members such as Dr Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Satish Marathe, Dileep Sanghani, Jyotindra Mehta and Uday Joshi, he suggested.
The webinar was attended by IFFCO officials including Yogendra Kumar, G K Gautam, officials of DNS bank and Sahakar Bharati workers from across the country, among others.
Sahakar Bharati’s National General Secretary Dr Uday Vasudeo Joshi hosted the webinar which was powered by Maharashtra based Dombivli Nagari Sahakari Bank.