As the cooperative sector is increasingly being seen as a major contributor to economy, a first of its kind brainstorming session on ‘International Good Practices Platform for Cooperatives’, coined as SAHAKAR PRAGYA by the NCDC was held at the LINAC premises in Gurgaon to explore technologies, best practices, and pressing issues of the sector.
Speaking on the occasion, NCUI President Dileep Sanghani emphasized that Cooperatives would play a big role in making India self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hence every government scheme should be prepared in the context of these entities, he said.
The NCUI President who was the Chief Guest at the session also asserted that the dream of ‘sabkasaathsabkavikas’ as advocated by PM Narendra Modi, was possible only through Cooperatives which have engaged around 95 percent of the farmers in the country in about 8.50 lakh cooperatives in various sectors.
Sahakar Pragya, which has been launched by NCDC, is a platform aimed to ease the mutual sharing of knowledge and also help new cooperatives, involving youth and women in particular, to benefit from understanding the opportunities and scope of the cooperative sector.
The knowledge exchange would also assist in understanding and infusing 21st century technological aids, which can lead to a quantum jump in efficiency and productivity of the cooperatives and consequently in the value and supply chain across sectors, said Sundeep Nayak, MD NCDC.
In his speech, V Srinivas, SplSecy, DAR & PG & DG, NCGG suggested a one stop portal for all the cooperatives having individual IDs even as he gave a ringside view of digital transformation of various e-initiatives taken by the Government such as DBT, GEM, Aadhar card, Digital Health Mission and MyGov platforms.
Ramesh Vaidya, National President, Sahakar Bharati too felt that Cooperatives were “Invisible Agents of Change” and can help realize the dream of the Prime Minister to make the country self reliant and position India number one in the world map. He also praised NCDC MD Nayak for his commitment and spearheading various innovative schemes to help boost income of the Coops.
During the interactive session, moderated by Capt. Prof Pawanexh Kohli, Advisor, NCDC, experts like Satish Marathe, Member Central Board of RBI and Jyotindra Mehta among others also talked about practices devised and deployed across geographies, recommended models and practices that are proposed by multilateral bodies like the ICA, the FAO, the NEDAC, the World Bank, the UNDP, the ILO, the UNESCAP, the OECD etc.
Later Nayak said that the stakeholders have been requested to submit their suggestions by November end to be compiled for due consideration.“Based on their inputs, we will prepare a set of best practices that the cooperatives can adopt as per their requirement and ease,” he said.
During the session, best practices by successful entities in the sector were also showcased. These included Primary Co-op namely ULCCS represented by Kishore, ULCCS, Kerala, Multi State Coop NAFED by Sanjeev Chaddha, MD, NAFED and Uttarakhand Cooperative Department by Dr. R. Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretary to the Gov of Uttarakhand.
“Led by Amit Shah Ji, Hon’ble Union Cooperation Minister, the newly created Ministry is also in the process of a new cooperative policy and proposes to work in tandem with states to strengthen the cooperative movement”, read a NCDC press release.