For the first time in US history, the White House held a national briefing for the widest range ever of US cooperative leaders. The trigger for this historical event was the United Nations declaring 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC).

Clearly, the extensive IYC efforts of the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) and its members have had national impact on the White House. Seeing co-ops as a particularly bright spot in the US economy, the Obama Administration asked Liz Bailey, the Interim President of NCBA to invite 150 co-op leaders to come to Washington, DC.

The White House wanted to engage US co-op leaders in a national dialogue around community development, job creation and economic opportunity.

Paul Hazen, former President of the NCBA and one of the early champions of IYC, remarked: “The IYC 2012 has provided a platform to raise the cooperative profile. We did that earlier this year with a Senate Resolution and now this event at the White House.”

That morning, it took what seemed an eternity for 150 co-op leaders to go through the security checks and mount the 50 steps to enter the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Building.

However, the 236-year wait would be well worth it. Just the conversations between cooperators waiting in line made the White House event a success. As Liz Bailey (interim NCBA President) said, “It was equally impressive to me to see the networking going on between members of our delegation.”
Courtsey:UNCOOP

Agricultural and agri-food cooperatives are experiencing worldwide success, making up nearly half of the entire cooperative movement and contributing to global food safety, speakers said at the pre-summit eve of International Cooperative Conference scheduled in October in Quebec city in Canada.

With this in mind, the growth of the cooperative business model in the agricultural sector will be a key topic of discussions at the 2012 International Summit of Cooperatives. Many of the top agricultural cooperatives have already confirmed their attendance.

Thanks to the cooperative model, agricultural producers are able to take control of the food processing and distribution process, thereby decreasing their dependence on intermediaries while at the same time boosting their income. This is how agricultural cooperatives help producers become financially secure while also contributing to global food safety. In 2008, agricultural cooperatives that were among the 300 largest cooperatives in the world generated gross income of US$472 billion.

Cooperatives have demonstrated their resilience in the face of numerous financial, social and environmental challenges,” says Stéphane Bertrand, the Summit’s Executive Director. “The speakers we are announcing today will demonstrate this extraordinary capacity of cooperatives – from the biggest to the smallest.

The following ten speakers have been confirmed:

Won Byong-Choi – National Agricultural Cooperative Federation – NACF (Korea),Leonardo Delgado – FEDECOVERA (Guatemala),Patrice Gollier – InVivo (France),Claude Lafleur – La Coop fédérée (Canada),Hugo Lares Sierra – Triunfo Verde (Mexico),Yves Le Morvan – Coop de France (France),David Moroney – Co-operative Bulk Handling – CBH Group (Australia),Denis Richard – La Coop fédérée (Canada), Serge Riendeau – Agropur (Canada), Svend Erik Sørensen – Danish Crown (Denmark)

Courtsey: PRNewswire

International Year of Cooperative as declared by United Nations for the year 2012 is being celebrated across the globe. Governments and cooperative institutions are funding studies to arrive at scientific conclusions about cooperatives.

In a voting conducted by Indiancooperative.com on the question of the role of National Cooperative Union of India in IYC so far, surprisingly majority opinion goes in favour of NCUI doing enough for IYC.

On the ground the experience, however seems to suggest the opposite.

NCUI’s has been trying to hold a Cooperative Congress on the eve of International Year of cooperative but there have been few takers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was approached to inaugurate the function refused to grace the occasion. The President of India, herself a cooperator and a former governing council member on the board of NCUI, also has made excuse about having preoccupations.

Disappointed, NCUI approached Union Agriculture and cooperation minister Sharad Pawar who also reportedly refused.Now the big question haunting NCUI is how to find a person whose persona fits the occasion.

NCUI itself does not appear focused enough. With its President entangled in arbitration and a Chief Executive busy attending meetings overseas things do not seem to move in the right direction. Over and above, the Chief Executive’s frequent trips to Pune where he goes to discharge his duties as VAMNICOM Head leaves him with little time and energy for NCUI.

An example of NCUI’s retarded response could be gauged from the fact that while International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) tied up with Indiancooperative.com way back in October last to strengthen the cooperative movement on the eve of IYC, a similar proposal has been gathering dust with NCUI for the past three months. With President having been caught up in Uttar Pradesh elections there is no one to take decisions at the apex organization.

It also shows that NCUI is not being taken seriously by the government. While Presidents and heads of states in other countries are vieing to inaugurate Cooperative Congress on the eve of IYC 2102, it is a sad story back home especially when we are being incessantly told that the cooperative movement here is the strongest riding on the support of 250 million members.

Indiancooperative.com scaled new heights in the year 2012 when readers offered their unflinching support by visiting it in millions. The months of January and February this year saw visitors cross a figure of 10 lakhs.

This huge response to the portal is encouraging as it means empowerment of common members of the cooperative societies who had been without a voice.

Our Comment box is open for anybody to express themselves and it was reassuring to find this developing into a platform for debates and discussions.

Indian Cooperative scene is vast and what we see is merely the tip of the ice-berg. According to an estimate made by National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) more than 25 crore people (250 million) are connected to this movement in the country.

Ten lakh is an insignificant figure that way. Yet the readership figures for any publications including the Times of India do not go beyond this number.

But what is most reassuring is the trend of growth. We have set up a goal of 20 lakh (2 million) by the end of the year. So far we have grown faster than we had  planned and we would not be surprised if we were  overtaken again.

Only two years back we attracted traffic to the tune of 30 thousand per month and now it is 11 lakh per month.

But it is a matter of satisfaction that we have had some recognition within the country and without.

International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) approached us about becoming a contributor of news stories on the Indian cooperative scene. A relationship is struck that has provided our activities with the global exposure.

The news portal www.coop erected by ICA on the eve of the  IYC 2012 continues to be dominated by news  stories from India, thanks to a hardworking and reliable  editorial team of Indiancooperative.com.

It is time we expressed gratitude to our sponsorers, needless to say,  our  journey could  not have been smooth without their support.  IFFCO, AMUL, Saraswat Bank deserve special mention.

Ishwer C Naik is a born cooperator who is always eager to solve the cooperative related problems of people.  In the comment box of the news story “Parliament passes historic bill” several comments were made by readers wanting to know more and more about the important amendment. Mr Naik emerged a natural leader answering queries and making people understand the importance of the bill.

Hailing from a tiny village named Ancheli, in South Gujarat with a population of 1000 and a flag station on the Western Railway, Mr Naik did his schooling in the 50s. Every day he would cover 5 Kms on foot from his tiny village to the Private Trust School in a nearby small town. Now a retired Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary, he has served multinational Corporations   and Indian family owned corporate groups for decades.

His keen interest in the ways of management   of Co-operatives and Government initiatives in developing the cooperative Sector is reflected in his comments on various issues.

It was a matter of great satisfaction for the editorial team of Indian Cooperative to watch a process in which it had little to do except offering a platform for cooperators to interact and voice their opinions.

Indian Cooperative was launched precisely with this aim in mind—starting debates and discussions on the cooperative movement and it has seen its baby grow with the help of the likes of Naiks.

There were several queries and Mr Naik’s answers are as follows:

The issue of Calcutta Wholesale Consumer’s Cooperative Society came up. Several members of the staff wrote letters to Indian Cooperative.com seeking help. One of the letters is:

I would like to know the future of the staff recommended by the Cooperative Service Commission to the Calcutta Wholesale Consumer’s Cooperative Society Ltd where the State government’s share is above 80%.The society is sick. We get 4000/- p.m and we feel insecure. Yet the cooperative service commission is treated on a par with the public service commission. For our jobs we had to pass a tough competitive examination. But we are denied adequate salary and recognition. Our future is at stake. The Cooperative service commission is not cooperating with us. West Bengal cooperative minister should take some urgent action in the matter. Otherwise, we have no option but to commit suicide—Amit

Anubrata Chowdhury  Submitted on 2012/02/17 at 16:23

We have 4900 members in our primary co-operative society. Our last election date was 16.06.2009. Now we are going to conduct election of delegates in this year, our question is 1) Whether  we should provide 100 members in one constituency?  2) Is it required to conduct election in three years or five years?

Ishwer Naik, Submitted on 2012/02/17 at 16:52

The West Bengal Cooperatives Society Act 2006 was made effective in 2010. As per this Act [Section 29 (5)(a)] Election of the Board is to be held once in 5 years. Bye Law concerning tenure of the Board gets superseded. So the Board member to be elected after the end of tenure of the present board on 16.6.2012, a new board will have tenure of 5 years. The other question can be answered only seeing the bye laws as the Act is open on that number.

Ishwer Naik, Submitted on 2012/02/16 at 14:15

If anyone wants to remain abreast of government news there is a web site which provides a free service:

http://www.igovernment.in/newsletter-registration-thanks

Radhakrishnan, Submitted on 2012/02/15 at 23:35

It is understood that President has assented to the bill on 12-01-2012.Whether government notification is available? Moreover, the number of the bill is shown as 97 instead of 111 in the final bill approved by Parliament. Any  reason?

Ishwer Naik, Submitted on 2012/02/15 at 10:51

It was Agri Ministry which had moved 111th Constitutional Amendment to grant autonomy to Co-Operatives. Politics is essentially a charitable act where it is said Left Hand doing Charity   Right hand should not know. Let’s hope in course of time both hands will get in to doing charity. Agri Ministry should start granting autonomy to Co-Ops under its own command.

Banmali Soren, Submitted on 2012/02/14 at 14:10

We sent a letter to the government of West Bengal stating our distress condition and government share participation .We have received a letter from the governor of West Bengal who already sent a letter to Asst secretary of cooperation in Writers’ Building at Kolkata . After that no response from the above stated officer. Six months is already over.

Ishwer Naik, Submitted on 2012/02/14 at 14:28

I think you should approach Assistant Secretary under RTI asking for information as to how the Governor’s letter has been disposed of i.e. what action has been taken in the matter? It is possible that after 30 days you may have to go in appeal also. Can you not give Governor’s letter to Media?

Ishwer Naik again on W Bengal imbroglio, Submitted on 2012/02/13 at 15:54

Staff Union can meet the governor of the State with their grievances.  It is a States’ undertaking and he has a moral duty to listen to State employees’ do not know if WB has a Lokyukta. If there is one he can also be approached. The State Public Service Commission may also have jurisdiction to examine any claim of a person who thinks himself to be an employee of the State.

Ishwer Naik, Submitted on 2012/02/12 at 13:25

I will be too anxious to know the outcome of this legal process, which is a bit expensive. But all avenues should in any case be explored. The Courts have startled people on many issues giving pleasant surprises, not limiting the justice with in tight framework of laws which are also not free from flaws. It’s a very heartening trend for “Aãm Aãdmi” that judgments are made with humane considerations.  For, humanity is first and laws are invention of humanity in any case. Thanks for noting my interest in this case.

Ishwer Naik , Submitted on 2012/02/11 at 15:00

On news story “Coop movement can solve rural problems: Kalam”. It is not possible to doubt Dr Kalam’s vision nor is it easy to improve on what his thoughts are. He is a visionary who can see life in India far beyond the horizon of most Indians.

Just as there are marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce doing fairly well there should be cultivator’s co-operatives for small farm land holdings. A farmer working as his boss on a small piece of an uneconomic holding is artificially happy and tolerates poverty in the absence of guidance.

The Cultivator’s Cooperatives after 111th Constitutional Amendment be innovated in such a manner that the farmer’s psychology can be well handled. This needs a massive educative process and not just enacting a law. Like how the growth of Indian democracy is thwarted by illiteracy, in Co-operatives adequate focus on co-operative literacy may not be that big a challenge.

There were many such issues that keep coming which Mr Naik answers with great patience.  He does things single handed and has emerged as one man institution ready to take on the huge govt-aided organizations like NCUI. Indian Cooperative salutes such a selfless soldier of the cooperative movement.

Headlines like “NCUI President launches IYC 2012 on AIR”, “South Africa impressed by Amul model” and many other are screaming through from the ICA homepage these days.

India is a vast country and we are in the forefront of cooperative movement is more than obvious. But for the first time we seem to prove through wide coverage given to India that we are about 24 crores(240 million) strong cooperative.

When ICA launched its website  www.thenews.coop on the eve of International cooperative year in September, little did we know that our cooperatives and its activities would catch global attention so hugely.

In a  short span more than a dozen stories from Indiancooperative.com have figured on News Hub on ICA Home page. Not a mean deed given our cooperatives’ limited exposure to print or electronic media back home. And he is a case in which through internet we reach remotest part of the world in no time and showcase our achievements in best possible way.

To keep pace, Indiancooperative.com is updated daily and aims to highlight both the achievement and failure of the movement. As a result our stories are being picked by ICA News Hub on a regular basis.

With this comes a responsibility too- a responsibility to spruce up our homes and put our best foot forward. All is certainly not well with our cooperatives with cooperative bodies like Nafed and  Biscomaun hogging media limelight for all the wrong reasons.

Urban Cooperative Bank is another cooperative sector with more negative reverberations than positive. Despite our effort we cannot stop headlines like “Supersession of Cooperative Board  hailed” or “Janata Sahkari bank penalized”, “More arrests in Nafed episode”. To stop such news would be injustice with the cooperative spirit of transparency as well as with  journalistic ethics. But we can try to clean our cupboard so that no one finds any dirt in this International cooperative year.

For beware now as world is watching us!

The phenomenal response received by Indiancooperative.com is very satisfying for the editorial and technical team of the News Portal. According to Google data the number of hits accumulated by the portal  in the month of June is  5,96000 thousands (Five lakhs ninety six thousand).

Indiancooperative.com was started in January 2010 with a sense of uncertainty. People said that cooperative is a sector which is not computer savvy and effort of this kind  would meet  lukewarm response. But the experience of past one and a half year has belied them.

In the first few months only we began to register hits to the tune of 30,000. It went on increasing form months to months. By the end of the year technical team announced that hits to the tune of 4 lakhs have been registered by the Google analytical data.

This year since January 2011, the hits have hovered around 5 lakhs with the month of June showing a sharp increase to the tune of nearly six lakhs (5.96 laks) .

Our editorial team is trying to locate factors behind such a phenomenal growth. One is the editorial policy of absolute neutrality. If we have written a negative story on any cooperative say  in the month of March, we have not hesitated in writing positive stories of the same cooperative when it has done something good.

Cooperative is a highly closed sector in India with cooperators staying together in one group. The job of Indiancooperative.com job was quite tough. One negative story against any group may be construed as inspired by the opponent group. It really took more than one year for us to prove that we belonged to no group. Our neutral stories and peoples’ phenomenal response are testimony to this fact.

We assure once again that we have no personal grudge against any one or any cooperative. We base our stories solely on information. If one looks at the gamut of stories that we have done so far, more than ninety percent are positive stories done to get cooperative movement recognition in the national mainstream.

But negative stories have a tendency of sticking to people’s mind and they forget the positive stories done on them.

Indian cooperative.com is not owned by any industrial house. It is coming together of a group of journalists to strengthen cooperative movement in India. So indeed we had problem of sponsors as one knows money is needed to run any show. We journalists pooled our limited resources and carried the job ahead. Later perhaps seeing our honest effort, IFFCO and Amul  gave us  some advertisements without putting any condition. Our thanks to them, indeed.

In a rejoinder to a piece  NCCT: “Comment” is alright but faking not proper, one of our readers has reacted sharply. Indiancooperative team fully appreciates the points raised by him and assures him and others to post comment without any fear.We promise to act as your shield now and also in future-Editor

Excerpts

Making comments on other person’s name is highly punishable that too when done intentionally to do damage to their career.

Bringing out such people will also reduce the false comments made on this website. The Indian cooperative.com must be appreciated for giving a platform to many poor candidates who have appeared for the interview to share feelings by hiding their identity.

They remain still helpless as they are financial poor to seek legal remedy. It is always been the honest people who are disadvantaged by powerful influential persons and higher authorities. The affected candidates were a given a chance to raise their voice against this recruitment corruption.

Hiding the identity may not be taken as an offence as some of them may feel giving the original identity involves risk of their livelihood and family members. There is a natural fear because nobody knows the extent of involvement of politicians, higher officials in administration etc.

The requirement of every transparent organisations particularly government institutions like NCCT  is to work with absolute integrity and this possible when whistle blowing is allowed and hence there may be persons who made true comments and not willing to disclose their names have to be protected. So far the role played by Indian cooperative.com in exposing the wrongdoing is highly commendable.

Now its time for them to recognize the need to protect those people who send an alarm in order to put an end to wrong doers in NCCT. The actions of individuals who sent the comments must be seen as an opportunity to strengthen the accountability of the organisation.

Indian cooperative.com must not discourage any potential whistle blower by its action while finding out the true identity of person who did damage to innocent persons who remained idle in this matter.

Hope the Indiancooperative.com will act as a shield for true comment writers and continue to fight against corruption and mismanagement.

In an interview given only to Indiancooperative.com in India by Bernhard Stormyr Information Manager / Yara International ASA, Yara International has answered several questions raised by us.

But it has suggested  us rightly  to respect the fact that there is an investigation going on, and they would not  say anything that can disturb this.

In Yara’s words “Our first priority has been, and will be, to find out exactly what has been going on. When that has been established, we will be able to speak about the consequences it will have.

Readers may be aware that the news of  kickback of 1 million dollar in failed Yara-Kribhco Joint Venture is doing rounds.

We present some excerpts of the interview

Indian Cooperative.com: The scam relates to year 2007. Why did Yara keep mum  all these long years?

Yara International: First of all, it has not been established yet what exactly has taken place. Your question concludes that there has been a scam. What we have said is that a payment has been made to an Indian consultant, and we have notified Økokrim about this. It remains to be seen if the payment to the consultant can be justified by the amount of work this person has done through 2006 and 2007. This issue and payment came to the attention to the current Yara management only recently, and we immediately informed Økokrim.

Indian Cooperative.com : It further says an internal whistleblower gave notice on this case to Yara’s management. Consequently, Yara’s Chief Compliance Officer informed the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim). Was “somebody” in Yara International not active in hiding away this information all these years? If it is so, what action has Yara taken against the same? Has any head rolled yet?

Yara International : The questions about who knew what, who did what, who authorized what is exactly the reason why we are doing an investigation and informing Økokrim. This will be established during the investigation, and we hope you understand that we do not want to speculate at this point.

Indian Cooperative.com : Who in Yara and who in Kribhco were involved in the negotiation for this joint venture?

Yara International: It is vital that the investigation is conducted as thoroughly as possible, and we do not want to comment or speculate on this at this point. The investigation will for sure conclude and show who have known and done what, and any criminal actions have been made.

Indian Cooperative.com : What was the scale of JV? I mean how huge was the failed deal?

Yara International : There was an intent to invest together with Kribhco, but the agreement did not include any financial obligations. In that sense it was not a huge deal, to use your terms.

Indian Cooperative.com : How was the money paid-cheque or cash and if possible could u tell the route thru which it came to India

Yara International: We do not want to go into detail on this, but leave it to the investigation to determine all the facts. We are cooperating fully with the Norwegian police on this.

Indian Cooperative.com: It is alright for the Police to find out the route and process involved in giving-taking the money. But there should not be any confusion regarding the name of recipient. If Yara claims to be clean, should it not reveal the name?

Yara International : As above, we do not want to comment on this at this point. But we are confident that everything will be determined through the investigation.

Indian Cooperative.com : After all it involves an important cooperative in India with avowed promise of social good. It is the money of cooperative members. The sooner it is revealed the better. It would help in taking corrective action back home in India and Yara should move forward to help cleanse the system.

Yara International : As this is not a question, I take the opportunity to point out that Yara has done everything in its power to contribute to getting to the bottom of this, by informing and cooperating with the police. We ask for your understanding that the first phase of such a process has to be to establish the facts, namely what has been going on? Can this be viewed as corruption? If so, who was involved? This is the phase the police is in now, assisted by us, and it is far too early to speak about consequences or give out names.

There are no one that wants this process to go faster than the current Yara management, but it is vital that the police can conduct their investigation in the manner they see fit, without us or anybody else “prosecuting” in the media. This is of course a difficult process for Yara and our employees, but we will just have to live with critical questions from the media for a while, and hopefully both you and other external stakeholders can see for yourself that we act responsibly, that is to get all the facts on the table.

Indian cooperative.com wishes a very very prosperous and fulfilling year to its readers. The news portal, only of its kind in India ,meanwhile has attracted readers traffic , even unexpected by the editorial and technical team during 2010.

Starting just in the month of January, 2010, the hits to the Portal was a meagre 14421 heats. But the roller coaster journey which the Portal took had many bumps. Came NCUI election followed by Kribhco election and then the NAFED scam-there were more on the plate for us than we could have handled. Amul saga with the ouster of BM Vyas was another issue with charged emotion.

We were suspected and even threatened by those who did not find the reporting favourable to them. But we stood our ground and remained truthful to our ideals of strengthening cooperative movement and movement alone. We supported them who supported the movement in real sense.

And the result was phenomenal. By the end of the year there were nearly two crore hits!

The journey, however was not easy. The cooperative sector is one field which despite being crucial to the uplift of rural India gets no attention of media. A small effort by our team had terrific response as people connected to this sector are hungry for the news.

By the end of the year, believe it or not, we have collected  nearly twenty lakhs (1900722). These are all Google data which can be verified by any one.

More important than the swelling figure of readers is to find the answer to the question as to why are people so hungry for cooperative news.

Cooperatives have mostly been shrouded in secrecy and shun media attention. Even now some of the top multi state cooperatives are fighting the imposition of RTI in court.

An average member of cooperative society is faceless as well as powerless. We have tried to give them voice though in a very insufficient manner. But hope is alive and in the year 2011 we will aim at empowering them more and more. Our Hindi Cooperative portal Bhartiya Sahkarita.com will play greater role in this.