Indian cooperative leaders are yet to prepare themselves for the election to ICA Board slated for October-November this year. Talking to Indian Cooperative.com, the apex cooperative body NCUI’s President said that any decision on the ensuing election would be taken only after July.

“It is long distance in time to go yet and we are meanwhile busy organizing International Cooperative Congress in May”, said Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav.

But NCUI President stressed the need of having a consensus candidate for the ICA Board. Cooperative movement in India is pretty strong and we need to have our representative on the world body, he added.

India lost ICA Board membership to Iran in the election in Cancun in Mexico in 2011. There was confusion among cooperative leaders of the country as IFFCO nominee Sriniwas Gowda and NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh vied for the post.

In a dramatic turn of events though Chandra Pal withdrew from the race but the ghost of Nafed scam did Gowda in resulting into the Iranian win at the election.

Trying to avoid repeat of the bad experience cooperative leaders are likely to tread cautiously this time. “Before reaching a conclusion, we will consult leaders from all the sectors”, said Chandra Pal to Indian Cooperative.com.

“It’s a long time into the future and much water would have flown down the river by then”, said Mr US Awasthi, Managing Director of IFFCO when Indian Cooperative contacted him to know his preparations for the election to the ICA Board. IFFCO represented India on the last ICA board.

A cross section of cooperators told Indian Cooperative that due to his increasing involvement in the affairs of Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh Chandra Pal Singh Yadav may not join the race leaving the field open for the IFFCO nominee. They cited the announcement of his name in the list released by the Samajwadi Party for the next Lok-Sabha election.

But Mr Singh vehemently denied playing any lesser role in cooperatives due to political engagements.” Rather I would be more effective and instrumental in solving the problems plaguing the cooperative sector if I got elected to the Lok Sabha”, he told Indian Cooperative.

There are twenty members on the board of ICA including President. Any country, no matter how big, can have just one member on the Board. The numbers of delegates to General Assembly may vary but in no case would it be more than 25 from a country. India has 12 delegates in the General Assembly.

Indiancooperative.com wrote in earlier pieces that for a country like India which is at the forefront of the global cooperative movement, efforts should be made to have a consensus candidate.

Talking to Indiacooperative.com, even ICA Asia-Pacific Regional Director Dr Chan Ho Choi had said that country matters not the individual.

ICA is an independent, non-governmental association which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. Founded in 1895, ICA has 254 member organisations from 94 countries active in all sectors of the economy. Together these co-operatives represent nearly one billion people worldwide.

A unique chance to interact with ICA President Dame Pauline Green was organized by the apex cooperative organization NCUI in N Delhi on Wednesday. Cooperators cutting across cooperative sectors participated in large number to make it a highly successful show.

Pauline Green called upon the representatives of cooperatives in India to implement ICA Blue-Print for Cooperative Decade so that voice of one billion members of cooperatives is heard at the global level.

The Blue-print emphasises on developing strong identity of cooperatives so that they emerge as one of the fastest emerging business models by 2020. She was speaking during a welcome meeting hosted by National Cooperative Union of India in Delhi on Wednesday in Delhi. The meeting was attended by representatives of all the national level cooperative federations including IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NAFCUB, NCDC, etc.

There is need to lobby with respective governments to make representatives of cooperative part of G-20 delegation so that world economic forums well recognize the strength of the cooperatives. One billion people are linked to cooperatives and such a large assembly must be heard, she said.

Fantastic 15 minute educative capsules are possible in the age of internet to popularize cooperative education amongst the youth, she added. She felt that active membership policy is vital for the success of cooperatives.

In this regard, she called the Indian cooperators to activate their cooperatives through active membership policy with good technology. She also said that ICA is in the process of creating Global Network of Parliamentarians to lobby for the issues of cooperatives. ‘Political advocacy is the weakest link in the cooperative sector’, she said.

She exuded confidence that she would carry forward the momentum provided by the active celebration of International year of Cooperative sin 2012. It gave us a unique sense of cohesion and we have to prove to the world that it is the fastest growing model of economy by 2020, she said.

Indian cooperators which included the senior persons like Shivaji Rao Patil and G H Amin shared the challenges before cooperatives in India. Dr Chandra Pal Singh, President, National Cooperative Union of India speaking on the occasion said that the Constitutional Amendment Act providing fundamental right to form cooperative is an eye-opener for the future growth of the cooperative sector in the country.

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation established in 1895 to unite, represent and serve co-operatives worldwide.

Dame Pauline Green, the dynamic President of International Cooperative Alliance ICA is visiting India on Monday. She is to land in N Delhi late Sunday evening.

Mrs Pauline who is a former Labour and Co-operative Member of the European Parliament is scheduled to hold meetings with the cooperative leaders of the country.

On Monday she is visiting the headquarters of the IFFCO where she is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on its Managing Director U S Awasthi in the afternoon.

IFFCO sources say that a dinner has been organized in her honour at Taj Mansingh on Monday evening where selected cooperators numbering 22 would have chance to interact with the global cooperative leader.

Next day on Tuesday she is scheduled to go to Kalol near Ahmadabad to visit one of the fertilizer plants of IFFCO.

Pauline has also plans to visit NCUI on 24th April where she would meet the NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh and others.

ICA Regional office located in Delhi has some agenda concerning Damus Fund on which she would confabulate with the local officials. ICA’s Regional Office has come up with a building from this fund in Noida.

Born in 1948 Dame Pauline Green has studied from London School of Economics and had been a Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Party of European Socialists.

We’re pleased to announce that the theme for the 91st ICA International Co-operative Day and 19th UN International Day of Co-operatives on 6th July 2013 has been decided:

“Cooperative enterprise remains strong in time of crisis”.

The International Day provides a great opportunity to celebrate the co-operative difference and will be the first time since the end of the International Year of Co-operatives to share best practice and really involve the world’s one billion co-operative members.  And we have lots of planning time to do this!

I’m reminded of the latest report by the International Labour Organization, featured in this month’s eDigest, called “Resilience in a downturn: the power of financial co-operatives” the report notes that financial cooperatives have fared better than the investor-owned banks in times of crisis.

Savings and credit co-operatives, co-operative banks and credit unions have grown, kept credit flowing especially to small and medium sized enterprises, and remained stable across regions of the world while (indirectly) creating employment.

It is their unique combination of member ownership, control and benefit that is at the heart of their resilience and that provides a series of advantages over its competitors.

With financial cooperatives presenting an astonishingly large slice of the global banking market, it is important to better understand the model.

We have much to shout about on International Co-operative Day – how will you be celebrating?

Courtesy: Cooperative News

Iffco Director Gopal Saxena was the lone invitee from India to participate in the National Retail Consumer Conference that took place in Solihull last weekend. Solihull  is a town in the West Midlands of England.

The two day event in which several delegates participated was themed “Future of Co-operative retailing.”

David Button, Chair, Cooperatives UK welcomed the guests. In his opening remark Burton said that the retail sector is experiencing a difficult and dramatic time at the moment and the conference could not have taken place at a better time.

Soon after Dame Pauline President ICA, Dr Saxena Director at Iffco made his speech and narrated the Iffco success story to the delegates.

Welcoming Dr Saxena David Burton said that “I am particularly pleased that Gopal Saxena, a Director of Iffco is with us. Iffco is one of the world’s largest cooperatives owned by 55 million members and Dr Saxena is here to provide an insight into Iffco story, Burton added.

Iffco’s board meeting on Friday proved lucky for one of its Directors Mr G N Saxena who got a two year extension.The proposal to have his services for another couple of years was put forward by Iffco Managing Director U S Awasthi.

The Board which was present in full capacity approved his extension without a voice of dissent. Mr Saxena who was to retire by the end of February would not continue in the office till March 2015.

A beaming Dr Saxena informed Indian Cooperative that he would try his best to keep the faith reposed in his works by the Board.

Dr Saxena is the Director of cooperative relation and cooperative development at Iffco. Talking to India Cooperative he said that strengthening cooperative movement is his top most priority. Tracing the history of Iffco he added that its claim to be the largest cooperative is due to the emphasis Iffco Board puts on the cooperative development since beginning.

He also vowed to be more proactive in the development of international cooperative relations and would play a more active role in ICA.

November has been great both for the Indian Cooperative.com and for the cooperative leaders of the country. If Indian cooperative and its Hindi version Bhartiya Sahkarita.com clocked up a traffic of 40 lakhs( 4 million) , the cooperative leaders bagged international assignments of high order.

Indian Cooperative has been growing since its inception in the January 2010. Building from scratch it has now earned a name for itself. Today more than one lakh people visit the site every day. On some days such as on 19th November and 27th November the traffic soared to 1.5 lakh hits.

The month has been tumultuous for some leaders such as Sunil Singh who won the election of Biscomaun amid numerous odds. But Ranjit Singh, the younger son of the cooperative doyen Tapeshwar Singh, was down on his luck in November as he lost the battle for Buxer cooperative bank reportedly as betrayed his own “men”.

November was also important as the Managing Director of Iffco U S Awasthi delivered one of the finest lectures exhorting cooperative leaders to face up to the truth or face the music if it is too late.

Iffco claimed a pride of place when it was ranked amongst the top 300 cooperatives in the world in the ICA Global 300 report.
Secondly, towards the close of the month Dr Gopal N Saxena and K SM Gowda were elected unopposed as chairman of ICA Asia Pacific Research Committees and as Chairman, Agriculture Committee of ICA Asia Pacific respectively.

Also, hundreds of cooperative leaders drawn from various corners of the world assembled in the grand finale to the IYC from 31st Oct to 2nd November in Manchester.

And towards the very end of the month Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President, NCUI was re-elected as Vice President of ICA-Asia Pacific. Indian Cooperative covered every event with alacrity and promptness which perhaps explains its rising graph.

Dr Gopal N Saxena,a popular figure in Delhi’s cooperative circle and a Director( Cooperative Development) at Iffco has been elected unopposed chairman of ICA Asia Pacific Research Committee for a period of four years. Iffco bagged another prestigious position as K SM Gowda, Director on Board and Chairman of Iffco-Tokio General Insurance was elected unanimously as Chairman, Agriculture Committee of ICA Asia Pacific.

Talking to Indian Cooperative from Kobe, Japan Mr Gowda said that agriculture sector has the potential of removing hunger from the globe and our focus would be on this theme only.

Dr Saxena, a man well-conversant with cooperative rules and acts said “research provides the raw material for application in solving human problems and thus we find it very challenging.”

The 10^th ICA- AP Regional Assembly and related meetings are being held in Kobe, Japan from 26^th to 30^th November, 2012.

The ICA-AP Regional Assembly, which meets once every two years, brings together the representatives from member organizations in the Asia Pacific Region.

The 10^th ICA-AP Regional Assembly will bring together the interests of 530 million cooperators through the representatives from 78 member organizations in 25 countries.

Dr. U.S. Awasthi, Managing Director, Iffco expressed his happiness over this development and asserted that this is a result of untiring efforts put forth by Iffco for the overall upliftment of its members in India.

Dr Awasthi said it is a recognition of the success of the Indian Cooperative movement on a global scale. He also said that IFFCO has been working for the development of cooperatives at grassroots level since its inception and continues to work for the betterment of agriculture in general and farming community in particular.

Hundreds of cooperative leaders drawn from various corners of the world have assembled in Manchester to the great finale of the IYC from 31^st Oct to 2^nd November.

Earlier, ICA President Dame Pauline Green had said there was no better place than Greater Manchester for the IYC celebrations to come to an end.

Indian continent is also large with representatives from all the major cooperative house from Iffco to  Kribhco making it to the Manchester.

Mr US Awasthi is leading the Iffco team while B D Sinha , MD ,Kribhco is conspicuous by his absence. With Chandra Pal Singh, VP Singh, G H Amin and Dr Dinesh, NCUI team is also quite strong. Virendra Singh, NCCF Chairman is also participating in the IYC finale which has to graduate into General Assembly of ICA also.

Commenting on the congregation the former Co-operatives UK Chief Executive told  “Our Movement has truly embraced this once-in-a-generation opportunity.” Manchester and nearby Rochdale  — the designated World Capital of Co-operatives — are dolled up for the massive Co-operatives United festival.

ICA officials have traveled across the globe throughout the year to strengthen the movement. As ICA Director General  Charled Gould said in India” IYC 2012 is beginning of the cooperative decade which would be used for intense campaigning for the cooperative business model across countries.”

Len Wardle, Chair of the Manchester-based Co-operative Group, also welcomed delegates to what he called “the largest-ever gathering of co-operative businesses from around the world”.

He said: “The ICA chose Manchester as the venue for the 2012 global expo during this momentous International Year because the world’s co-operative sector began in Rochdale in Greater Manchester.

“It is a fantastic event with global conferences, hundreds of workshops, an inspiring exhibition, tours to the new-look Rochdale Pioneers Museum and the Co-operative Group’s new head office – and people from all corners of the UK and the globe,” quipped one of the ICA officials.

Virendra Singh led ICA committee on consumer cooperatives in the Asia-Pacific region is ready with its draft report.

The committee was constituted by the ICA Committee on Consumer Cooperation for Asia and the Pacific in December 2009.

The Ad-hoc Committee was composed of Mr. Virendra Singh as the Chairman who is also the Chairman of National Co-operative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF), a representative each from Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union (JCCU, Japan) and NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Ltd. (Singapore) as members.

The objectives of this Committee were to collect information on the working of the consumer cooperatives in the Asia-Pacific region and prepare a status paper on the same for further study and action where needed.

The committee, apart from other things, was entrusted with the job of finding out constraints being faced by the consumer cooperatives of Asia-Pacific region. It was also tasked to find out possible solution.

The area of study included 13 countries of the region including India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Iran, Singapore, Japan, Sri Lanka, Korea, Thailand, Kuwait, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Mr. T.T. Adhikari ex-Managing Director NCCF along with Ms. Kanako Miyazawa, Secretary of the ICA-AP Consumer Committee played significant role in the preparation of the draft report.

Refusing to disclose the details at this stage, Committee Chairman Vivenrda Singh told Indian Cooperative that the compiled information will provide useful inputs for taking corrective steps in the ailing consumer cooperatives of the region.