NCUI held a press conference in Delhi on Thursday to announce the commencement of Cooperative Congress. Addressing media persons NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh said that the apex organization will be organizing 16th Indian Cooperative Congress from 25th-26th June, 2013 at Delhi.
Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble President of India will inaugurate the Congress on 25th June, 2013 at Siri Fort Auditorium, and Sharad Pawar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industry will preside over the Congress. The Congress will review the progress of the cooperative sector and come up with effective policy-guidelines in the wake of the emergent problems before the sector, Chandra Pal added.
The theme of the Congress is ‘Cooperative Enterprise Build A Better World.’ The Congress is likely to be attended by more than 2000 delegates from across the country and abroad. S.C. Jamir, Hon’ble Governor, Odisha, Aziz Qureshi, Hon’ble Governor of Uttarakhand, Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi.
Other dignitaries include Dr. Kukul Sangma, Chief Minister, Meghalaya, Tariq Anwar, Minister of State for Agriculture & Food Processing, Govt. of India, K.V.K. Reddy, Minister for Coopn., A.P., Siddeque Ahmed, Minister for Coopn., Assam, J.H. Rothuama, Minister for Coopn., Mizoram, Li-Chunsheng.
Vice President of ICA will be the Guests of Honour on the occasion. The major highlights of the Congress will be release of a publication on success stories spanning various cooperative fields and a book on Right to Information and Cooperatives. Eight Technical Sessions will be organised to discuss strategies for the growth of cooperatives as autonomous and competitive enterprises.
Addressing the Press Conference on Thursday Dr. Chandra Pal Singh, President, NCUI said that the Congress is the biggest image building exercise of the cooperative sector in India. He further said that the Congress is held at a time when the cooperatives face the challenge of competition in the economy.
There are more than 6 lakh cooperative societies in the country. The cooperatives have a strong presence in almost all the areas of socio-economic activities like agricultural credit, housing, sugar, milk, tourism, fishery, spinning, fertilisers, etc. Due to significant contributions of milk cooperatives, India is the largest producer of milk in the world. Amul, IFFCO and KRIBHCO are the biggest success stories in the cooperative sector.
