A delegation of fisheries cooperatives led by Fishcopfed Chairman Prakash Lonare met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday in Delhi to apprise Fishcopfed’s effort to erect a network of cold storage for the preservation of fish.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com Mr Lonara sounded very enthusiastic on the Minister response. ‘Sharadji wanted us to go ahead with the project as we told him of our project of helping 1000 primary fisheries cooperatives in marketing fresh fish”, Lonare said.

Fishcopfed has collected data on the fisheries cooperatives which, according to its Managing Director are 15000 in number. “We have short-listed about one thousand primary fisheries cooperative societies which would be wired in the cold-storage network first” Lonare added.

Besides Chairman, the delegation to Minister comprised of Fishcopfed Vice-Chairman, its Managing Director, Nandu Patil, ICL representative Yashpal Bhola and others.

“I and our MD Mr Mishra are leaving for China next month to study preservation of fresh fish practiced in that country. There is ice-factory and cold storage attached to the fishing boat and it helps keep the fish fresh which in turn fetches good return from the market”, Lonare said.

G H Amin, the Vice-President of National Cooperative Union of India celebrated his 65th birthday in Ahmadabad with a big show where biggies of the cooperatives assembled to wish him happy birthday.

‘Since it was my 65th birthday my family decided to celebrate it on slightly larger scale. Also since I did not celebrate my 60th birthday in any conspicuous manner everybody insisted on having a gala party this time”, Mr Amin shared with Indiancooperative.com.
The birthday party attracted who’s who of Gujarat as Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Governor Dr Kamala and many dignitaries descended on the party venue to wish Mr Amin a long life and many, many returns of the day.

Cooperative leaders such as NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav also broke free from his busy schedule to be present on the occasion. He was followed in tow by his Chief Executive Dr Dinesh.

Readers may recall that Mr Amin was nominated to NALCO Board recently and after attending two board meetings he is enthusiastic about extending the boundaries of NALCO to Gujarat. “We have great store of bauxite mines in Bhuj and opening a Nalco refinery here would be a good idea’, he informed indiancooperative.com.

Amin said that he has already initiated dialogue with state government and he may announce setting up of Nalco refinery in Bhuj shortly.

The birthday party took place in Amin’s farm house located in Ahmadabad.

RBI’s scanner has zeroed in on many urban cooperative banks in Gujarat. Even while the ghost of Madhavpura Mercantile bank refuses to be vanquished, other UCBs are not making it easy for the apex bank. This week only three urban cooperative banks of the state have come under the scanner of Reserve Bank of India. They have been penalized for not adhering to the norms of RBI-a regimen which prevents UCBs from going Madhavpura Mercantile bank way.

Siddhi Cooperative bank of Ahmadabad has been penalized for violation of RBI instructions relating to non-disclosure of penalty levied in its balance sheet and inordinate delay in reporting of Securities Transaction Reports (STRs) without any cogent reason.

Sulaimani Co-operative Bank , Vadodara has been faulted with violation of operational instructions imposed on the bank by RBI, non-adherence to exposure ceiling prescribed for unsecured advances, non-reporting of loans and advances granted to Directors, non-compliance with KYC norms and AML guidelines, etc.

Earlier Harij Nagarik Sahakari Bank , Patan was found guilty of violation of Reserve Bank of India’s instructions relating to Section 20A of B.R. Act, 1949 and Anti Money Laundering (AML) guidelines.

The Reserve Bank of India had issued a show cause notice to each bank, in response to which the banks submitted a written reply. After considering the banks’ reply in the matter and submission made during the personal hearing, the Reserve Bank of India came to the conclusion that the violation was substantiated and warranted imposition of the penalty.

Meanwhile, Madhavpura Mecantile Bank as reported earlier has forfeited its licence as it did not heed RBI instructions despite repeated reminders.

Mr Prakash Lonare, President, National Federation of Fishermen’s Cooperatives Ltd.(FISHCOPFED) to visit Korea on the eve of 50th anniversary of the establishment of Korea National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives.

Mr. Lonare has been invited to the event for the celebrations. He would also give an expert view on the  progress of Fishcopfed. The event would start on 2nd April and would culminate on 4^th April in Seoul, Korea.

In 1962, Korea National Federation of Fishermen’s Cooperatives was established to promote the social, economic and cultural status of fishermen and increase welfare of fishing communities in Korea.

This year is the 50th anniversary of its establishment. Its last half century has been a rough voyage to develop the status of fishermen and fisheries and to support middle and low income people in Korea.

It also has been a sailing to enroot the cooperative movement in Korea.  Korea National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives and National Federation of Fishermen’s Cooperatives are the members of International Cooperatives Fisheries Organization (ICFO).

Buoyed up by a joy of winning the Mansa assembly by-election in Gujarat, the congress Party has begun waging virtually a psychological warfare against its rival the Modi led BJP in the state.

As if on elections winning spree, the congress party has had a cakewalk in a recent poll for Gujarat’s Junagarh district Cooperative Bank. The congress annexed 17 out of 22 seats on the board of directors.

The coming of this electoral triumph on the heels of the party’s win in the Mansa by-election has demoralized its opponent the BJP.

That the popular support for the BJP is fraying around the edges is evident from the fact that the party could manage to get a mere seven seats on the board of the district cooperative bank.

Some analysts, however, have blamed the BJP’s defeat on narrow considerations that swayed the cooperationists. The BJP led board of the bank had shown a good performance, they said.

The focus on cooperatives in the International year (IYC 2012) is throwing some truly people-oriented cooperatives which are in existence without governmental support. They are functioning due to the sheer grit of some individuals. Didi bank is one of them.

A self-help group and situated in Jharkhand Didi bank is getting popular with people. The initiative surfaced for the first time in a village in Singhbhum district of the state.

The goal of the Didi Bank is to help poor women stand on their own feet economically.

One Veronita Lakra has mainly been instrumental in beginning this credit organisation.

Originally started as Chirag Mahila Bachat Swavlambi Samity it was later called Didi Bank.

The puny bank charges Rs 1 as interest on a loan of Rs 100.The bank abhors the idea of taking any help from the govt and is resolved to remain independent with its own banking methodology.

People engaged in minuscule economic activities are benefitting from the bank.

Madhavpura  Mercantile Bank in Gujarat  is yet again in trouble. The Reserve Bank of India issued  a notice to the bank  threatening to cancel its license as it has  not done enough to recover  dues  adding up to more than a thousand crore.

The RBI is not happy about the way the present management of the bank is handling things. The dues have accumulated and they need to be recovered immediately.

The RBI has asked the bank to improve its performance inside of a month or face the music.

The bank owes more than 60 crore to the cooperative banks and about 100 crore to individual depositors.

Knowledgeable sources say,as the MMCB is most likely to  go into liquidation  scores of banks in the state would be  seriously affected by it.

The MMCB officials stalled when asked to react to the notice issued to their bank by the RBI.

Collection and pasteurization of camel milk will soon be starting in Gujarat. There is information that several cooperatives including the dairy major GCMMF have offered to do this unconventional dairy business.

According to informed sources, Kutch district will be developed as the center of the business and efforts will be made to motivate camel farmers to lend their support to the experiment.

A campaign will soon be launched to explain to the people the economic and medicinal advantages of camel milk, said sources.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com, GMMCF Managing Director R.S. Sodhi said  if  the camel milk project was implemented in  Kutch district we would make available our marketing resources to make the  project a success.

Observers say, the camel milk experiment would be yet another feather in Gujarat’s cap , catapulting the state into  prominence as a pioneer in the field of camel dairy development.

Urban cooperative banks of National Capital Region have reacted in a mixed manner on the issue of latest RBI guidline on opening of Urban Cooperative bank with a seed capital of Rs 3 crore in place of Rs 15 lakh.

Talking to Indiancooperative.com Yatindra Mallik, Chairman of Keshav cooperative bank welcomed the move and emphasized. that it would be always better to take the opinion of urban cooperative banks before issuing guidelines. The mutual exchange of ideas would help UCBs to implement RBI guidelines better, he added.

Noble Cooperative bank supported RBI move while talking to the correspondent of indiancooperative.com. Noble bank is active in Noida and had to suffer the pain of shifting on accounts of Supreme Court directions against banks in residential area. V .K Sharma its CEO said that even otherwise it cost roughly Rs 50 lakh in opening a branch of a urban cooperative bank. But he resisted governmental effort to put cooperative banks on the same footing with corporate banks when it comes to regulation and supervision.

The Chief Executive of Citizen cooperative bank Shri Prem Mishra welcomed RBI move saying this would check fake banks from coming into existence. Such a step would also reduce the incidence of closing down of cooperative banks which are started without viable capital, he added.

Many other banks such as Jamia Cooperative bank felt that Rs 3 crore is a big amount given the nature and scope of cooperative banks. Such a move by RBI would discourage many prospective do-gooders who intend to help those marginalized sections of society no body is bothered with, they argue.

The role of the cooperative banks is being regarded important in the context of the economic transformation of Bihar.

Answering a query in the state assembly, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Shushil Modi said the govt would not begin banking operations but would take all possible measures to strengthen the cooperative banks in the state.

Modi added the cooperative banks met the financial requirements of the people at large and therefore the govt would make every effort to ensure their smooth functioning.

According to observers, the Nitish govt sets great store by the cooperative movement and the development of the cooperative network across the state is a priority in its scheme of things. It was Bihar only where Election Authority was set up to conduct elections of primary Agricultural cooperative societies across the state.

The experiment has been a huge success. Today the state boasts of a credible network of PACs spread across the remotest parts and through which various governmental schemes from paddy procurement to loan disburshment are being implemented. Nitish Kumar indeed deserves to be awarded Sahakar Ratna title.