NCUI has kicked off its five day International Programme in collaboration with CICTAB known as “Training Techniques for Trainers of Co-operative and Rural Financing Institutions in the SAARC Region” in Delhi at headquarters on Monday amidst the presence of several senior cooperators.
About 35 participants of Central Bank, Cooperative and Rural financing institutions of SAARC countries viz Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India are participating in the training programme.
Notable personalities including Balu Iyer, Regional Director of ICA (A-P), Rajendra Pratap Singh, Director (HR and Legal), IFFCO, besides the Chief Executive Dr N.Satyanaryana and other top officials of NCUI were present on the occasion.
Rajendra Pratap Singh, Director (HR and Legal), IFFCO while recalling one of the training programmes he attended said “In 1991 I went to attend the three month training programme in London where the trainers taught what we already knew but still the process of training filled me up with a new inspiration and boosted my confidence level which I realized later”, he said.
“World is changing; if cooperatives fail, corporate will take it all; so, you have to prepare yourself to face the challenges by turning to technology and new techniques of finance”, Singh advised.
IFFCO Director said those days are not far when there will be no office, the HR will not be there and people will telework from home. Technology is a must for cooperative institutions, he said.
In his address N Satyanarayan said “Around 70 percent of Indian population depends upon agriculture and a large number of them are caught up in poverty. There is a need to get farmers a fair deal.
“Where there is a cooperative, there is prosperity. The objective of cooperatives is to identify the last human being of society and help them overcome their poverty” said Satyanarayan.
NCUI CE said there are around 8.3 lakh cooperative societies in India out of which 91 thousand societies are Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACCS) playing an important role in providing credit to farmers, he said.
Addressing the gathering ICA-AP Regional Director Balu Iyer said “The fifth Principle of cooperative is training and education. The latter should have two sides- one sharing your experiences gained during the training and the other using those experiences in developing cooperatives”, he said.
Citing the example of the cooperative movement of Japan, Iyer said “In Japan, members are born of cooperatives, grow up in cooperatives and die in cooperatives. We often brag that we have a 125 years old cooperative movement but our lack of awareness about cooperatives is our major challenge”, he said with a tinge of sadness.
The ICA-AP regional director urged the delegates to write a piece about their experience of this training for publication in newsletter for the benefit of members of cooperative societies.
