Dr Verghese Kurian was a believer in the importance of cooperative leadership in protecting, preserving and exemplifying the values of cooperation against those who seek power and patronage.

He transformed India from a milk deficient country into one of the biggest milk producers in the world. Under his able leadership Anand became the milk capital of the country where Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Institute of Rural Management, (IRMA) are located.

His vision of the dairy cooperative sector links over 10 million farmers at 200 dairies across the country producing more than 20 million litres of milk everyday. He was awarded Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Magasaysay Award and other National and International awards.

His biggest contribution was to unite millions of women and farmers in the Dairy Cooperative sector and create a brand known as AMUL. As Chairman of NDDB he began Operation Flood that spanned more than 2 decades and eventually ushered in the white revolution in the country.

Many countries replicated the Anand Model and became self-reliant in milk and milk processing industries. Thanks to his efforts, Institute of Rural Management Anand was set up for R & D and training on various aspects of management of rural cooperatives.

The IRMA has been a totally unique institution giving impetus to young brains to understand rural development and issues of farmers. He stood like a rock against bureaucratic difficulties at different points of time to ensure the growth of GCMMF and NDDB. He nurtured these organisations and developed a second line of command.

The ultimate tribute to Dr. V. Kurien would be to protect and preserve what he stood for throughout his life. The cooperative movement in India is at a crossroads. It is the duty of us cooperators to build and strengthen a genuine cooperative movement in the country to project the interests of farmers and other weaker sections of society.

(Mr Eknath Thakur is the Chairman of Saraswat Bank, the biggest cooperative bank of India)

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.

His mother took a small loan which grew into a fantastic figure with the local moneylender. This story relates to a remote village of Tamil Nadu. Hidden from the notice of both his mother and the money lender, a young boy saw first-hand a system which sucks blood from the poor.

This year’s Magsaysay award winner Kulandie Francis was born there. He is the son of the old lady who has turned ninety now. Francis acquired high academic degrees, went to Bangladesh to study working of Grameen Bank and earned name for him but never lost sight of what he had to do in life. He returned home. To change the lives of his mother and women in similar boats.

Today he has been awarded Magsaysay award but he hardly cares as he is motivated from within and needs no accolades to go on. He is a true stuff!

Kulandei Francis’s Integrated Village Development Project in Krishnagiri has done wonders for past decades. It has changed the lives of many in Tamil Nadu villages. He has pursued the economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in rural India.

Francis helped establish self-help groups for women that supported poverty-stricken women engage in group activities and start micro enterprises, create savings accounts, and secure reliable loans.

At present there are over 8,000 self-help groups across the three districts of Krishnagiri, Dharmpuri and Vellore, supported by IVDP.

Cooperative movement is crying  for stuff like Kulandie Francis. Sad that no cooperative leader is ever in race of Magsaysay award, tall talks notwithstanding!

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.

National Cooperative Union of India, the apex body of cooperatives in the country is conducting membership satisfaction survey these days. A sample of questionnaire has been sent to all the cooperative federations that are its members for feedback.

As reported earlier NCUI is caught into existential woes.

In its survey there is an attempt at soul-searching. The tumultuous journey for the past couple of years when it faced complete non-cooperation from the government at one hand and a lack of trust owing to lecturer scam on the other; may have motivated it to go in for such survey.

The survey asks questions such as: do you think the activities of NCUI are in line with your needs, what is your overall satisfaction level with NCUI, are you happy with role of NCUI in Government policy formulation or such as how do you see the overall performance of NCUI in the last one year?

It is obvious that the apex organization is trying to come to terms with the new reality. It knows that if it has to survive it can do so only on its own strength. And its strength lies with the member cooperative federations which number 204 in total.

The list of its members include
National Federations-17 , Multi State Cooperative Societies-38 , State Cooperative Unions-31, State Cooperative Banks-18 , State Coop. Agri. & Rural Dev. Banks-14, Marketing Federations -16, Consumer Federations-8 , Housing Federations-10, Urban Banks Federations-10, Tribal Federations-2 , Other Sectororal Federations-23 and Miscellaneous-17

NCUI has not been taking its members as seriously as it should have taken. Standing on the crutch of the government it dreamt of ushering in cooperative movement in the country without them.

A total membership of 204 cooperative federations is no mean achievement and is enough to sustain NCUI and the cooperative movement.

Its training program has not made any mark in the cooperative movement of the country as scores of success stories which have been featured in this news portal have shown that the movement has grown due to individuals and not due to the NCUI or govt.

Unless it redefines itself and throw it headlong into rekindling of the cooperative movement with the help of its members its existence would always remain in doldrums. Government may help you to survive by getting salaries and perks; it cannot carry the movement forward. Only cooperators can do so.

Cooperative sector in Jammu and Kashmir is on the upswing, humming with activity.

Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Minister Manohar Lal Sharma recently said in the state assembly that there are clear signs of democratization of the cooperative sector in the state as most of the cooperative organisations have shown their commitment to democracy by holding free and fair elections.

According to the Minister, the new trend will encourage the cooperative sector’s growth and efficiency.

A recent landmark event has been the beginning of the female cooperative societies in the state. Thousands of women have joined the cooperatives.

There are   scores of branches of the female cooperatives and their transactions are significant. This no doubt stands out as a great achievement.

All kinds of projects and activities have begun in the cooperative sector, super bazars and poultry farming, for example are flagship projects.

Observers with knowledge of the J &and K scene are predicting a solid growth and expansion of the cooperative institutions in the frontier state.

Farm experts are of the view that cheaper crop loan facility has played a significant role in enhancing the country’s food grains production, a record 250.42 million tonnes in 2011-12 crop year.

Since 2006-07, the government has been providing interest subvention to all public sector banks including cooperative banks for short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh, so as to ensure short-term agriculture credit was available at 7 per cent to farmers.

Sources say the finance  ministry has suggested that the target of credit flow to agriculture sector by banks and financial institutions be continued at Rs 4,75,000 crore in the 2012-13 fiscal as well.

However, the ministry has sought some mechanism to be evolved to ensure credit access to farmers in the Eastern states, where the government is trying to usher in the second Green Revolution. Credit flow to eastern states has been lower as compared to other states.

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.

At least for once the cooperative body celebrations would be based on the strength of common man and not on the strength of hired crowd. International year of Cooperative 2012 is being taken by NCUI and others quite seriously and marches, races and other visible activities involving common people are being planned.

Indiancooperative.com is happy to note that the movement is coming out of conferences and seminars which are notoriously attended by hired crowd and constant set of people.

Cooperative movement has to involve common man and IYC 2012 is unique chance to popularize the movement.

All possible preparations are already underway for the celebration of the international year of the cooperatives,  we are putting in our best efforts in conjunction with various cooperative organisations  to make it  a grand success, said Dr Dinesh,Chief Executive of NCUI in an interview with the indiancoop.com correspondent here today in the capital.

NCUI recently organised a meeting of cooperative organisations  to discuss   preparations in progress  for the celebration of the IYC 2012. All the leading cooperative organisations including IFFCO, KRIBHCO NCDC, NAFCUB, FISHCOFED, Sugar Federation etc attended the meeting, Dr Dinesh added.

According to Dr Dinesh, most of the cooperative organisations have promised to organise special activities during the IYC and give the IYC a particular mention in their advertisements. NCDC for example, suggested a march from India gate to Rastrapati Bhawan be undertaken  to  popularize the IYC among the common people.

The cooperative organisations are extremely enthusiastic about the IYC and using the IYC logo in all their projects and activities. Some organisations are still working on various ideas and plans for the IYC and will soon send them to NCUI for consideration. Some cooperative organisations are planning to hold competitions and contests.

There are also plans to organise workshops and seminars on various issues during the year. One such workshop will be held on the ecological issues, Dr Dinesh added.

Dr Dinesh informed that special efforts would be made to organise publicity for the IYC 2012 and print media, electronic media and air and Doordarshan will be  used  for the purpose. Several ministries of the govt of India including the ministry of finance and the ministry of agriculture will lend their support to the publicity campaign.

The man who ushered in white revolution and made India a force to reckon with in dairy products was born today. Dr. Verghese Kurien, the doyen of dairy cooperative movement was born on November 26, 1921 in Kozhikode, Kerala,

Amul as it is known today is his brain child. Organizing small farmers he conceived an idea which saw the emergence of world-class brand in Amul. Fittingly, Amul has released an advertisement on his birth day in which it has thanked Kurien for taking it so far and so high.

There is hardly a cooperative meeting taking place in nation’s  capital Delhi when Amul and Kurien are not mentioned. On the eve of Iffco cooperative award held recently in Delhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has glowing words for it when she said  that Amul is a living example of a successful cooperative model.

A strong votary of cooperatives he fought till end of his active life against governmental interference. His unflinching faith in cooperative model of growth also won him many adversaries and, according to some, he fell out with one of his protégés on the issue of cooperative vs corporation.

Now in nineties he shuffles his residency between Chennai and Anand.

Dr. Verghese Kurien returned from America in 1948 and joined the Dairy Department of the Government of India. In May 1949, he was posted as Dairy Engineer at the Government Research Creamery, a small milk-powder factory, in Anand, Gujarat. Around this time, the newly formed cooperative dairy, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited ((KDCMPUL), was engaged in battle of survival with the privately owned Polson Dairy, which was a giant in its field. Enthused by the challenge, Dr. Verghese Kurien left his government job and volunteered to help Shri Tribhuvandas Patel, the Chairman of KDCMPUL, to set up a processing plant. This led to the birth of AMUL and the rest is history.

Today again India is faced with acute milk crisis as the growing population seems to have offset the benefits  of operation flood. Even Amul had to convert its produce more towards white liquid by cutting down on dairy products such as cheese and butter.

Persons like Kurien are needed once again to usher in next white revolution. The man is truly magical!

Happy birth day to him from team of Indian Cooperative.com.

You can post your birth day wish for him in the comment box below.