The government has told Parliament it is creating a sovereign wealth fund to buy fertiliser and energy assets abroad.

Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers said the govt is formulating a concept paper on the subject. The paper is being worked out in close consultation with various ministries including the planning commission, he added.

According to the minister, his ministry and the department of economic affairs have already been considering the matter.

The working group on fertilisers set up by the planning commission had earlier suggested that the country should   seriously consider buying fertiliser mineral assets abroad to be able to supply the deficiency in the domestic supply, the minister added.

Sources say the country is still badly dependent on imports of fertilisers including potash and DAP.

The govt has assured parliament that it would not hike the administered prices of fertilisers. Ferlilizer giant IFFCO has already cracked a deal in Canada for producing fertilizer.

National Cooperative Development Corporation, NCDC could help realize the dream of a successful cooperative movement in the country. But the organization is mostly busy in “shows and seminars” without taking a plunge in the nitty-gritty of cooperative movement.

Recently it held an event in Imphal in collaboration with Institute of Cooperative Management (A body under NCUI) commemorating the U.N. Declaration of the year 2012 as the year of cooperatives.

A large number of important people including Cooperation and Social Welfare Minister A.K.Mirabai, S.K Tucker, Thailung Pamei, and P.Vaiphei attended the inaugural function.

In her remarks on the occasion, Mirabai called upon the cooperative societies to develop a strong sense of responsibility in financial matters. The minister added they should also utilize the opportunities being offered by the NCDC schemes.

Scores of leaders called upon removal of poverty using the energy of the cooperative movement. They emphasized that the cooperative movement could play an important role in ending inequality in society.

Indian cooperative movement is suffering from lack of fund. There are scores of cooperative entrepreneurs spread across nation who could fashion out a successful cooperative if NCDC goes proactive.

But many such projects are gathering dust as they are caught in the bureaucratic red-tapes of NCDC. But NCDC never loses a chance to hold seminars like the ones it held recently in Chandigarh.

NCDC’s mandate is quite clear. Backed by solid fund from the government it has to help a cooperative entrepreneur conceive a viable project and help it with necessary fund to make it successful.

How far NCDC is effective in its job is clear if one takes a detour of any state of the nation. Swathes of land have nothing else to do other than agrarian activities in a country which is teeming with entrepreneurs.

Despite this if some of the daring entrepreneurs are able to place their projects before NCDC , it gets caught up in insurmountable red-tapes.

NCDC’s “slow or no-pace” is obvious from an experience of Indian Cooperative.com which sent a letter to it to conduct an interview of the Managing Director in the International Year of Cooperative. The application is gathering dust with no takers.

If we start training programmes for youth in rural areas we can retain them. They have been a significant contributor to the national income, with their huge involvement in country’s industrial production, particularly exports.

They not only help in providing employment opportunities to millions of people across the country – especially to the village artisans and rural skilled workers – but also curtail the problem of economic concentration in the hands of a few. Thereby, they create a sound entrepreneurial base in the economy by developing/nurturing the talents/skills of small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

Without question, such MSMEs have huge potential both in terms of creation of employment and encouraging the growth of related sectors. And these MSMEs can certainly play a significant role in the global value chain by enhancing their productivity, technology upgradation, quality improvement, skill development, access to both domestic and international markets, and the like.

If the agriculture sector picks up, certainly the agro-industries would grow and so would the service sector simultaneously do so through MSME options. When dispersed industrial progress takes place in rural areas, other service sectors like housing would start to thrive, thereby creating business for construction industries.

This in a way can emerge as one of the options for development of MSMEs. In fact, there is a growing necessity for such a promotion of ‘chains of industries’ even in rural areas and the government must create appropriate enabling policies to so that MSMEs can turbo-charge India’s inclusive growth process just as China/Japan and other countries in East Asia have done in the past.

The contribution of MSME to the economic growth of the country should therefore be recognized well by the planners/policymakers. In India, these enterprises account for almost 45% of manufacturing output, 95% of the number of industrial units and 40% of exports. Clearly, they are the engines of (economic and inclusive) growth.

Besides, the sector provides employment to almost 60 million people – including women and vulnerable/marginalized sectors of society thereby making it one of the largest sources of employment (due to the failure of agriculture sector) in India.

Besides, this sector has the capacity to generate significant economic activity in rural areas, as it typically uses local raw materials/skills and often, provides people with employment close to the areas where they live/work. Therefore, the rural economy cannot be isolated, but rather it should be integrated with other sectors of the economy to bring in rural prosperity at this juncture when the overall rural situation is gloomy. And MSMEs can certainly play a crucial role acting as a vital link between the rural economy and industrial sector.

As the MSME sector creates a majority of the country’s new employment, the approach now would be to focus mainly on developing an attractive and supportive climate for its development. Despite its commendable contribution to the nation’s economy, MSMEs continue to face many challenges. 

However, they still remain an important source of growth and development because of the vital role that they (MSMEs) play in job creation. Therefore, the government should take the initiative to understand the dynamics of this sector by developing it further and providing it the necessary support by undertaking initiatives that can lead to its burgeoning growth and development.

Ravi Nitesh, New Delhi

At the time when capitalist are trying to take over the market without considering about environment and sustainable development methods, there is a need to provide support to cooperatives and to train, educate and empower the cooperatives.

Cooperatives are one of best ways to establish profit making groups as these are involved in empowering the people and thus contributing towards equality and social justice.

Unemployment is growing and thus the primary need is to provide income generation by providing employment to youths there. On the other hand, it must be noted that big corporate and plants may rupture the environment due to pollution, deforestations, displacement of people and waste disposals etc. Therefore the best option lying in the optimized utilization of natural resources and making sustainable and ecofriendly business in this traditionally rich state. Development can be achieved by establishing and promoting cooperatives in various sectors so that people can start work together and can achieve growth collectively.

Apart from this, it should also be noted that existing cooperatives and new cooperatives have to pay attention towards their working style in view of the environment.

In general view, cooperatives, due to its basis of formation (i.e. by the group of people) maintains a good network and mass approach vendors and customers of products/services. All these are its stakeholders and thus it may use all these links to enhance awareness about climate change.

These cooperatives may use strategies for protection of environment and to adopt ecofriendly techniques.  These strategies also need some initiatives by the side of state and cooperatives themselves. Such as:

Training: Cooperatives need to be trained on efficient ways of resource utilization and wastage prevention. They should know that which process/way is the ecofriendly approach to get services and products.

Reward & recognition: Awards and recognitions could be provided to group members adopting better methods.

Internal green audit: Members of cooperatives need to learn techniques to measure and quantify the carbon emissions.

External green audit: Qualified and expert members from some cooperatives may form a joint committee for environmental audit of other cooperatives.

Traditional knowledge: Cooperatives could be promoted to send their inputs of traditional knowledge, for any work. It is because, traditional techniques, most often are nature friendly.

Promotion to green business: Cooperatives involved in green businesses need to be promoted.

Cooperative consultancy: Members of cooperatives may form a new cooperative just to provide low cost consultancy to other companies, institutions etc. to find the ways of reducing the carbon footprints.

New initiatives: Cooperative may start new initiatives such as cloth banks, where people can deposit their old clothes and then cooperative can use these for making bags. These bags will be cheap in cost because of availability of raw material (cloth) for free. These low cost bags may replace plastic bags.

Education to schools: Cooperatives should participate in voluntary services for spreading awareness in schools.

Fund Contribution: Cooperatives may associate themselves with other organizations working with the objective of climate change mitigation, and may contribute a certain percentage of their earnings to sponsor some programs running for the cause.

Small Steps: Some small steps such as printing of environmental slogans and quotes, tips to save environments etc. can be used on bills prints, packing, uniforms etc.

Local issues of environment: Cooperatives may get engaged with various local institutions to address climate change. They can get barren lands from local authority on lease, and can start plantation. They can also be involved in fisheries, ponds making, rain water harvesting, handicrafts etc. to become more involved with green business.

In fact, any cooperative can generate income by its existing strategy too but it would be beneficial to them if they will adopt such approach that may benefit to other people and environment as well. After all, its only our responsibility to think about the life of future generation as they are equally entitled to get all the natural resources that we are utilizing at present. For a just and equal society, for reducing the gap between economical status and for protection of environment,  only sustainable development approach can bring a fruitful future for our earth.

The inaugural session of the International Cooperative Conference went off as planned with the high and mighty of the land assembling on the occasion at Manekshaw Centre in N Delhi on Wednesday.

President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, State Minister Harish Rawat, foreign delegates, IFFCO’s Chairman and Managing Director were vying for space on the
dais.

An array of speakers touched upon the various aspects of cooperative movement. If Nabard Chairman Prakash Bakshi compared the movement to a tree whose branches are growing while its root is crying for nourishment, NCUI’s President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav expounded the benefits of cooperative governance as compared to the corporate governance.

While foreign delegates shared their international experiences, Dame Pauline Green, President of ICA was conspicuous by her absence. IFFCO sources cited visa as the reason responsible for the cancellation of her programme.

Talking to media on the occasion, IFFCO’s Managing Director U S Awasthi said that the need for holding this conference was felt after the United Nations declared this year as the International Year of Cooperatives. We support the movement as it helps us grow both domestically and globally.

Citing the example of IFFCO’s expansion in Canada where it is about to launch a new project Awasthi said that Canadian Cooperative movement leaders have come forward to be our business partner and a source of strength for us. Our experience is the same in Jordon where our project is doing fine, he added.

Even in India we exist on the basis of support where thousands of cooperators have joined hands to make it a success, he said.

Enumerating the weaknesses of the cooperative movement in the country, Awasthi called for setting up of a cooperative exchange on the lines of SEBI. Private sector has its exchange, Public sector the government funding but cooperative sector is in crisis beset by a shortage of capital in most of the cases, he added.

Appreciating the cooperative leaders of the country who joined hands to make this conference a success, Awasthi said that a leader’s job is to act as a catalyst and the movement would grow on its own.

However, the high security veil around the Makeshaw Centre prevented many people from making it to the function as entry was banned much before the President’s arrival. This led to many people returning from the venue with frustration writ large on their faces.

The two day function has its final session in the NCUI auditorium on Thursday. The run-down auditorium has been spruced up for the occasion.

Financial inclusion is the zeitgeist of the contemporary world; we can barely construct a successful society if we tended to get away from the trend. It is regrettable that our banks have had a rather unedifying record in terms of accepting the spirit of the time.

Anand Sinha, Deputy Governor of the RBI has said the hoi-polloi inhabiting the country’s semi-rural and rural areas is still unbanked and under-banked. The banks’ services are exclusive of this huge population.

In Mr Sinha’s view, the urban cooperative banks could play an important role in bringing the poor within the banking framework.  As the poor could barely access commercial banks, the UCBs could cover them.

According to the RBI report, there are over 97 thousand cooperative banks in the country, UCBs count nearly 2 thousand. Altogether, the cooperative banks are a crucial link in the situation and their further expansion would do a lot of good in terms of financial inclusion. It is significant that both Sinha and the Y.H.Malegam Committee have favoured  a greater  presence of UCBs in the areas that are yet to be  banked.

The RBI report adds all is not hunky dory with the rural cooperative banks though the PACS are financially rundown and their capacity to be inclusive is severely limited.  Also the cooperative banks have been terribly slow in spreading their network in the North-East.

The philosophy that inspired the cooperative movement was political. It sought to put the means of production and consumption under the control of the people who formed voluntary associations. The latter were managed and run by the members themselves. There was no outside management controlling these voluntary bodies.

The primary aim of these voluntary associations was to eliminate the unwholesome competition between the members and to foster an egalitarian outlook on life by securing equality by distributing profits among the members at regular intervals.

The cooperative movement is a totally unique experiment in that it is neither based on private property nor on a division between capital and labour. However, Marxists have scornfully dismissed it as an impossible idea. In their opinion, common ownership is merely an appearance and in reality it never comes to fruition.

The movement began exactly in 1844 in the West and was an attempt to realise the ideas of some visionaries within the framework of the 19th century retarded capitalism. The movement did have some progress in the early phase but began stagnating soon.

While in England it shriveled into a real estate business, it turned into a limited commodity production on the continent.  It is a pity that the movement that began as an object of profound admiration is now seen as an insignificant part of the present capitalist arrangement.

Israel’s kibbutz is often cited as a great example of what can be achieved through the cooperative movement. Kibbutz is a cooperative agricultural settlement which is supposed to be socialist and egalitarian in its internal organisation. A form of commune living is celebrated in kibbutz. But overtime because of Israel’s special geo-political requirements Kibbutz was converted into a means of maintaining some active military presence in the Israeli countryside.

Thus even a fleeting look at the career of the cooperative movement reveals that the movement has unraveled and it would be impossible to revive it to a level where it could begin even slightly influencing the world economy.