Even before the ink of the story on her elections for the Vice-Chairmanship of Women Committee of ICA-AP could dry up, the news of her landslide victory came into the Indian Cooperative desk. Indian candidate Priti Patel is declared elected as the new Vice Chairperson of ICA-AP Women Committee.
Ms. Priti Patel won the ICA-AP elections for the post of Vice-Chairperson receiving a whopping 20 votes while her rivals Dr. Ahtoung Kim, iCOOP, South Korea and Ms. Janette Romero, NATCCO, Philippines got only 4 and 1 votes respectively.
Ms. Chitose Arai from the Japanese Consumer Co-operative Union (JCCU) has been elected unopposed as the Chairperson because no candidate filed their nomination papers against her.
There were 28 voters representing different countries including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Palestine, Singapore and others. From India, there are three votes including fertilizer cooperative IFFCO, NCUI and UP Sahkari Awas Nirman Evam Vitt Nigam. There are four votes each from Japan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Philippines and South Korea have one and two votes respectively. The term of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson will be of four years.
Ms. Priti Patel was nominated from the India based National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI). She hails from Rajkot, Gujarat and also Vice-Chairperson of Gujarat Mahila Credit Cooperative Society.
She believes that traditionally women are extremely successful economic contributors in the fields of Cooperatives, Handicrafts, Agriculture and allied activities and that it is necessary to increase women’s participation in the work force of Engineering, Manufacturing and Infrastructure to realize a higher level of growth and development in India, that is more inclusive and sustainable for the country.
Patel was adjudged one of 5 inspirational women from Gujarat who won NITI Aayog’s Fifth Edition of Women
Transforming India Awards in March 2022.
She is the Chairperson and Managing Director for a Women Centric Defence Manufacturing Company namely Raspbian Enterprises. It was established to manufacture state of the art Small Arms Weapon Systems and Security & Defence Products.
The ICA-AP Committee on Women was constituted in 1998 due to concern over negligible visibility of women in cooperatives in the Asia-Pacific region.
Indian Cooperative joins others in congratulating Ms Patel on her grand victory, which underscores the growing clout of Indian Co-operators on global fora.
