Over a period, cooperatives were given autonomy and freedom from the Government control and this also had led to amendments in the cooperative legislations and initiation of more reforms in the cooperative sector as against the earlier scenario. Another important change which has occurred in the recent years is pruning of public services by the Government besides cutting down on the large network of rural and agri-extension services.
In response to these situations, the cooperatives need to draw their strength and capital principally from the stake-holders themselves by providing value added services to them.The role of Government is to provide enabling business environment only for the growth of the cooperatives. In the recent past, the Government of India had also made the cases for cooperative companies, amending the Companies’ Act to enable the cooperatives to operate with same degree of freedom as is being enjoyed by the private companies without sacrificing the spirit of cooperative. Therefore, cooperatives can no longer grow and expand its activities as appendages of Government.
In this backdrop one of the efficient way to mobilize resources and participate in various programme and schemes of the govt. through public private partnership mode. The public private partnership (PPP) provides an opportunity for private sector participation in the financing, designing, construction, operation and maintenance of Government programmes, schemes and projects.
The cooperative sector has immense professional manpower spread across the country, huge infrastructure of their own, and are working as community-based organization for its stake-holders. The time has come to reap and explore a whole new world of possibilities through PPP mode by the cooperatives and forge a greater interface between government and cooperative sector in a wide range of activities in the country.
It may be collaborative efforts between Government and cooperative sector to participate as an agency implementing the projects and schemes of the government through PPP mode. The cooperatives are the community based economic enterprises and successful in delivering benefits at the grass-root level. There are various programmes and projects like NREGA which is a flagship of the Rural Development Ministry of Government of India in which cooperatives have immense role to play through public private partnership both at the village & block levels for gamut of rural development activities. There is another promising programme called Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) with huge allocation of funds in which again cooperatives may play a lead role through partnership mode. There are other popular programmes like ATMA scheme which is focused for agriculture extension services to the farmers in the villages besides, natural resource management, organizing farmers groups through cooperatives etc. with the partnership of various state governments. In fact, the need of the hour is to identify and participate in the various socio-economic welfare projects and programmes of the government by the cooperatives and popularize the PPP Model so that resource crunch cooperatives may enhance their financial strength and relevance in days to come.