In a mail sent to Indian Cooperative , the Regional Director of ICA (Asia-Pacific) Balu Iyer said that there are many elements in the budget the cooperative sector can capitalize upon. These include in the areas agriculture, youth, and the informal sector.
The increase in allocation of credit; schemes aimed at improving soil and water usage efficiency, ‘per drop more crop’; and creation of Unified National Agriculture Market can all benefit farmers who form the core base of the cooperative sector, Iyer added.
The budget recognizes that two-thirds of India’s population is below 35 and rural population still forms close to 70% of the population. The emphasis on skill development through ‘skill India’, and job creation to turn youth turn from being job-seekers, to job-creators is an important one and cooperatives have an important role to play, he said.
Mr Iyer felt that in hand with this, the focus on informal sector enterprises, through ‘funding the unfunded’, has the potential to boost the sector, which generates maximum employment. This can be a thrust area for cooperatives in the coming years.
The emphasis on infrastructure should also give a boost to rural connectivity and improve access to markets. The decision to transfer to states a bigger share of central taxes should enable states to also increase their spending in agriculture and credit sectors. The spirit of cooperative federalism should be welcomed, he concluded.
