The apex body of the Indian Cooperative movement in the country NCUI organized a webinar on Tuesday for the West Zone States comprising states like Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu. The theme of the webinar was “Challenges before Cooperatives in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic and need of IT Intervention- focus on Dairy, Credit and Sugar Sector”.
The webinar was inaugurated by President NCUI Dileep Sanghani. Eminent co-operators, senior govt officials including those of NABARD, NCDC, RCS offices, Banks, State Cooperative Unions, Federations and staff and officers of NCUI Coop Education Field Projects participated in the event.
In his presidential speech Sanghani said that NCUI has been organising regional conferences regularly to deliberate upon the problems faced by cooperative organizations in various states pertaining to these regions, and the recommendations of these conferences are communicated to the government and other agencies for redressal of these issues.
Sanghani said that cooperatives faced the brunt of the COVID Pandemic successfully . He lauded the role of Amul which served people despite hardships on account of transportation, less demand and manpower etc. The intervention of IT shall ease the hardships faced by the cooperative sector and hoped that the new Cooperation Ministry shall help in generating more employment, Sanghani stressed.
Earlier Dr Sudhir Mahajan, Chief Executive, NCUI in his opening remarks said that during COVID -19 the lives and livelihood of people were badly affected, but technology played an important role as cooperative organizations, which are best tools for socio-economic development, utilized the best potential of technology to provide services to the people in the best possible way.
The webinar had a rich galaxy of speakers who touched upon the theme of technology interventions from various dimensions. G.H. Amin, GC member NCUI and President, Gujarat State Cooperative Union highlighted the important role of technology for cooperatives including Amul in Gujarat during the covid pandemic.
Jyotindra Mehta, President NAFCUB shed valuable light on the importance of technology for urban cooperative banks, and he said that the crisis situation of Covid provided a big opportunity for technology to emerge as a key factor for effective functioning of cooperative organizations.
Prof. M.S. Sriram, Chairperson Centre for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore in his speech highlighted that cooperatives must not miss the human aspect while embarking on the path of technological upgradation.
Shekhar Gaikwad, Commissioner Sugarcane, Govt. of Maharashtra emphasized on the need for professional functioning of cooperative sugar factories considering the competition from private cooperative sugar mills.
Dr. Hema Yadav, Director VAMNICOM, V.V. Deshpande, DGM NABARD, J. J. Shah, Retd Joint Registrar Gujarat and K.C. Supekar, MD NCDFI, and Ms Savitri Singh, Director, NCUI addressed the webinar and shared their views on various aspects of cooperative development pertaining to the theme of the webinar.
Dr K N Sinha, Executive Director, moderated the webinar, and proposed a vote of thanks. More than 150 people attended the webinar.