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!
