The pride of labour co-operatives in the country Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd (ULCCS) has hired Raveendran Kasthuri- an ex-IBMer to head its software and technology vertical- UL Technology Solutions (ULTS), informed a senior officer of the cooperative.
Kasthuri who is from Kerala itself would assume charge as CEO today that is on August 6. Kasthuri has worked with IBM for more than 20 years in various roles. He was its vice president when ULCC decided to hire him.
“ULTS is one of our units or verticals out of many. There are others like UL Education, Sargaalaya-India’s unique handicraft village, UL Care, UL Cyber Park to name only a few”, said Kishore ULCC official.
Interestingly, ULCC Cyber Park was inaugurated by the then President of India Pranab Mukerjee. It aims to export IT solutions to US and Europe through its IT arm.
As recently as last month the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the Indian Institute of Infrastructure and Construction (IIIC) near Kollam beach in Kerala- a joint effort of the state govt and the labour co-op major Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society Ltd. IIIC aims to offer hands on knowledge at three levels beginning with matriculation and going up to B Tech and M Tech. It is also perhaps the first public-private-cooperative partnership (PPCL) specimen in the country.
Another notable achievement of the labour cooperative, a couple of months ago had been organizing a successful 48 hour cooperative ‘Hackathon’ in collaboration with ICA-AP, ILO , IIM-Kozhikode and Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM). This was aimed at enticing youths to the co-op fold.
The objective of this ‘Hackathon ’was to allow vibrant minds to work on solutions (based on the co-op model) to tackle some of the 21st century challenges facing the co – operative platform ecosystem.
Who would believe that ULCC launched with 14 members with an initial investment of 37 paise in 1925 in Vadakara in Kozhikode district would come this far, said a cooperator with a sense of satisfaction.
