Mumbai based creative agency “Ask for Ideas” has launched a motivational song on the “Co-operative Movement “. It is a jingle song that conveys the values, attributes and philosophy of the Co-operative movement.

This “Co-operative Sector Anthem” shall be extremely relevant since 2012 has been recognized as the International Year of Co-operatives by United Nations.

The lyrics of this song are in Hindi, which shall be set to foot-tapping and melodious music. It is sung by professional jingle singers.

The hallmark of this proposed song is good poetry blended with dynamism – an irresistible combo that makes any song memorable. The creation of this jingle is a pioneering event by itself since no one in the country has so far attempted to communicate the message of the Co-operative movement through such a song in an emotionally powerful manner.

The composer of the song Anant S Krishnan is looking for organizations in the co-operative sector who can come on board as the Sponsors of this song.

Talking to Indian Cooperative Mr Krishnan said that the sponsor cooperative organization can upload it on social networking websites and may create a link on their website. They can also play it at events, exhibitions etc.

Indian Cooperative has received a mail from Rajiv Padia who also finds NABARD role vis a vis cooperative banks not constructive. Debate being soul of intellectual process we produce below his take on the subject. Excerpts

Hello Sir,

NABARD and RBI both are are responsible for this condition of CCI. They always put restrictive policies on State and District Central Cooperative Banks.

They never allow these banks to come out of artificially crafted well in frog-in the well manner.

While in the matter of financial discipline and economic prudence they are treated at par with Commercial Banks but when it comes to doing profitable business, they are reminded of their puniness.

In the given scenario CCIs can survive only if they are allowed to venture out and do business in other sectors and are not entrapped to agriculture or PACS alone.

RBI and NABARD still think that State and District Cooperative Banks are meant for PACS only.

We have visited USA and studied working of credit unions. It has been observed they survive even where big banks fail in USA.

RBI and NABARD must have some positive policies for State and District coop Banks.

Rajiv Padia

India needs to focus on rapid development of villages by providing   urban amenities in rural areas to become a developed nation by 2020, former President A P J Abdul Kalam said in here today in the capital while addressing the second global agri-business incubation conference.

Small land holdings hamper farm growth in India and this problem can be remedied through the cooperative movement. The latter can help in mechanization of farms and marketing of agro-products, Dr. Kalam added.

The foundation of sustainable development of rural areas is PURA which means providing urban amenities in rural areas,” Dr. Kalam added with emphasis.

According to him, nearly 800 million Indian people live in villages who desperately need basic facilities such as infrastructure, knowledge and  connectivity  to play an important role in the transformation of India.

There are an estimated 7,000 PURA complexes covering 6, 00,000 villages, these  complexes should  work on product diversification, better technology, sound entrepreneurship  and market understanding to succeed  as centers of growth.

The three-day conference is being organised by Indian Council of Agricultural Research and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

The conference will discuss  potential remunerative livelihood option in agriculture and allied sectors while addressing the challenges in agri-business.

In an admirable move Kerala government has decided to extend the pension scheme already being availed by cooperative bank employees to the general staff employed in other sectors of cooperatives such as  dairy farming, coir, fisheries and industries.

Career in the cooperative sector has always been seen as slightly shaky and this move by the government will certainly boost the sector. About twenty thousand employees in various cooperative institutions are going to benefit from this move.

The pension amount varies from Rs 600 per month to Rs 10,000 per month and September 13 has been earmarked as the date on which Chief Minister of Kerala V S Achuthanandan will unveil this project.

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan of Kerala has said that cooperative hospitals in the State were on a par with the private sector and help in curbing the exploitation of poor people by private hospitals to a major extent.

Achuthanandan said cooperative hospitals were being set up by the LDF with the objective of preventing exploitation of the poor by the private sector. Major changes were being witnessed in the State’s health sector after the LDF came to power.

Some of them were the introduction of the referral system in medical colleges; the doubling of salaries of medical teachers; and the ban on private practice. As many as 115 community health centres were upgraded to national standards, VS said.

In a ceremony attended by a number of journalists and cooperative leaders, the Hindi edition of Indian Cooperative.com was launched on Monday in the Press Club of India. Speakers after  speakers stressed the need for impartial reporting in the cooperative sector, which though is of great importance but is being treated step motherly by the mainstream media. Now you can log on to bhartiyasahkarita.com to update yourself on cooperative sector on daily basis.

The senior journalist Madan Lal Hind of Hindustan Times clicked the mouse and announced the arrival of Bhartiya Sahakarita .com, the first Hindi news portal on cooperative sector. Speaking on the occasion Mr Hind said that Indian Cooperative .com is doing wonderful job by exhaustive reporting in the field of Cooperative journalism. He hoped that under the able editorship of Paras Nath Chaudhary, Bhartiya Sahakarita. Com will surpass its English edition.

Senior cooperative leader and former Chairman of NCCF Mr Ramekbal Singh wondered as to why no body thought earlier of news portal on cooperative. He promised all help and exhorted right minded people to come forward to make cooperative movement in India a success.

RN Pandey, Managing Director of NFCL narrated the scope of labour cooperatives and said that NFCL has got export license and will soon launch the export of labour to foreign countries. He promised to lend all help to make cooperative movement a success.

Detailing the statistics of Indian cooperative on big screen, Technical Head Vaibhav showed that the cooperative news portal is getting 5 lakhs hits.He also showed the inclusion of Indian cooperative.com on Google news along with reputed publications like Times of India,Business Standard, Hindustan Times,etc.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with the most reputed publications of the land, Indian Cooperative .com has indeed traveled a great distance in a short time.

Representatives from various cooperative organizations participated in the Launch and felt that the need for Hindi portal was long due. Concluding the show Mr Paras Nath Chaudhary, the editor said that with the help of people he wishes to make Bhartiya Sahakarita.Com a plate form for diverse ideas.

It is well known fact that the cooperatives now face fierce competition in the market.  The era of subsidies, concessions, govt. support is on continuous decline and what was preferred domain of this sector is now opened up for other players in the market. Now, Cooperatives hardly get any preferential treatment in the State Policy Documents.

Over a period, cooperatives were given autonomy and freedom from the Government control and this also had led to amendments in the cooperative legislations and initiation of more reforms in the cooperative sector as against the earlier scenario. Another important change which has occurred in the recent years is pruning of public services by the Government besides cutting down on the large network of rural and agri-extension services.

In response to these situations, the cooperatives need to draw their strength and capital principally from the stake-holders themselves by providing value added services to them.The role of Government is to provide enabling business environment only for the growth of the cooperatives.  In the recent past, the Government of India had also made the cases for cooperative companies, amending the Companies’ Act to enable the cooperatives to operate with same degree of freedom as is being enjoyed by the private companies without sacrificing the spirit of cooperative. Therefore, cooperatives can no longer grow and expand its activities as appendages of Government.

In this backdrop one of the efficient way to mobilize resources and participate in various programme and schemes of the govt. through public private partnership mode.  The public private partnership (PPP) provides an opportunity for private sector participation in the financing, designing, construction, operation and maintenance of Government programmes, schemes and projects.

The cooperative sector has immense professional manpower spread across the country, huge infrastructure of their own, and are working as community-based organization for its stake-holders.  The time has come to reap and explore a whole new world of possibilities through PPP mode by the cooperatives and forge a greater interface between government and cooperative sector in a wide range of activities in the country.

It may be collaborative efforts between Government and cooperative sector to participate as an agency implementing the projects and schemes of the government through PPP mode.  The cooperatives are the community based economic enterprises and successful in delivering benefits at the grass-root level.  There are various programmes and projects like NREGA which is a flagship of the Rural Development Ministry of Government of India in which cooperatives have immense role to play through public private partnership both at the village & block levels for gamut of rural development activities. There is another promising programme called Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) with huge allocation of funds in which again cooperatives may play a lead role through partnership mode.  There are other popular programmes like ATMA scheme which is focused for agriculture extension services to the farmers in the villages besides, natural resource management, organizing farmers groups through cooperatives etc.  with the partnership of various state governments. In fact, the need of the hour is to identify and participate in the various socio-economic welfare projects and programmes of the government by the cooperatives and popularize the PPP Model so that resource crunch cooperatives may enhance their financial strength and relevance in days to come.