ULCCS a mini-Kerala version of L&T: IIT Professor

An IIT Professor R Gopalakrishnan has paid glowing tributes to Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS) and has said India needs to have many more ULCCS to be prosperous.

Krishanan writes “ULCCS Ltd stands for Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd. Outside of Kerala, readers would not have heard of it, indeed may even have difficulty pronouncing the name. This institution was started in Uralungal in Kozhikode district with a great social purpose in 1925 by a social reformer named Guru Vagbhatananda.”

Skilled building and construction workers had lost their jobs in the 1920s and 1930s. To mitigate unemployment and loss of livelihood, the workers were banded together into a co-operative to undertake construction projects and earn a living – an inspiration not dissimilar to Kaira co-operative, started much later in 1946 by Tribhuvandas Patel for milk, he goes on.

Now almost a century old, ULCCS has all the makings of an institution: It provides work to almost 12,000 rural workers, it has constructed 6,500 projects of bridges and roads all over Kerala, it has an order book of 3,000 crore, and enjoys growth of 25 per cent every year, the professor writes.

“It is the first primary co-operative to be recognized as a permanent member of the International Co-operative Alliance. Over 95 years, its accomplishments are so many that UNDP is making a film on the institution. To put it simply and only slightly inaccurately, ULCCS is a mini-Kerala version of L&T!”, he says.

Interestingly he writes- Consider ULCCS and its relevance in the digital era. Their logo shows two bare-chested laborers, pulling a road roller. Significantly, this labour cooperative has recently set up UL Cyber Park to attract IT jobs to Calicut and to encourage start-ups.

Further, ULCCS has set up UL Technology Solutions as a “co-operative corporate” – sounds as much of a riddle as JRD Tata stating that Tata represents “socialistic capitation”. UL Technology Solutions works on AI and analytics, GIS, Application Development, IoT, Blockchain and cyber security.

UL Technology Services is headed by some top-notch ex-IBM professionals. Labourers pulling a road roller and IT geeks working on the cutting-edge technologies how is that for rainforest innovation in an organisation that started with a purpose?

India must be having many ULCCS type rainforest organizations. I would love to hear of some from our readers. I wish I could learn about them and visit them. It is so inspiring for innovative India, he concludes.