Harnessing the “Cooperative Advantage to Build a Better World” was the theme of a workshop organized by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Social Policy and Development recently in Ethiopia.
The workshop was attended by three illustrious cooperative personalities from India- Dr Dinesh, Chief Executive of NCUI, Dr G N Saxena, Director Cooperative Development at Iffco, and Lalita
Krishnaswamy from SEWA.
Dr Dinesh was acting as an expert while Mrs Krishnaswamy presented her views on how to create and maintain a successful cooperative. SEWA is indeed a living example of this.
Dr Saxena who lectured three times during the two-day conference told Indian Cooperative that what cooperatives could do for local area development, corporates cannot even dream of. The cooperative model is usually small and involves the participation of local people. The local populace constitutes its market. Thus you have a system which is self-contained and self-sustaining, Saxena added.
Dr Saxena expounded at length the difference between Corporate and Cooperative and cited the factors such as outward flow of fund, invasion of local climate and selfishness in the case of corporates.
The workshop was excellent and we remained pushed into the seminar-hall without any break till evening. There was no sight-seeing and it was business and business alone, remarked Dr Dinesh, Chief Executive of NCUI. “We need to inculcate UN culture in our country where seminars and workshops often degenerate into casual exercises”, he lamented.