NCUI celebrates the International Cooperative Day on 7th July 2018 in presence of eminent personalities to rejuvenate the Cooperative Model of Development

International Cooperative Day as well as the United Nations International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated annually on 1st Saturday of July. The aim of the celebration is to increase awareness on cooperatives, the goals and objective of the United Nations and the international cooperative movement, highlight the contributions of the movement to resolve the major problems addressed by UN and also strengthen as well as extend partnership between international cooperative movement and other stakeholders including Government at local, National as well as International Level. On the occasion, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) appeals to its members to promote cooperative movement and support their national and local cooperative initiative by organizing events.

This year, the International Day of Cooperatives celebrated on Saturday, 7th July 2018. Under the slogan: ‘Sustainable Societies through Cooperation’. The theme for the year 2018 was "Sustainable Consumption and Production of Goods and Services". The theme and slogan reflects the Goal number 12 of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals i.e. ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’ and also contribution of cooperatives for ‘Transformation towards Sustainable and Resilient Societies’.

To commemorate the occasion of International Cooperative Day, NCUI organized a symposium on the theme “Sustainable Consumption and Production of Goods and Services" under the slogan : ‘Sustainable Societies through Cooperation’ where eminent persons viz. Shri Jalaj Shrivastava, IAS, Additional Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (AMUL), Dr. Manoj Nardeosingh, Assistant Secretary General, African Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) and Shri Harvir Singh, Editor, Outlook Hindi were invited to speak on the theme.

While welcoming the dignitaries and speakers, Shri N. Satyanarayana, Chief Executive,

NCUI briefed about the significance of International Day of Cooperatives, the importance of

this year’s theme and slogan and also about the contribution of cooperatives towards

achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. He said that development should aim at

long term economic benefits rather than long term prosperity and ensure the quality of life

for future generations. He also urged the officials of different cooperative organizations and

Government that all should work tirelessly to strengthen the cooperative movement and to

build confidence among the members. He also urged the Government to create conducive

environment by supportive cooperative policies and legislation to promote cooperative

movement as well as strengthen the member education programmes.

Dr. Manoj Nardeosingh, Assistant Secretary General, African Asian Rural Development

Organisation (AARDO) said that strong public-private-cooperative partnership is the need of

hour for Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development. Referring to the Goal no. 12 of 17

SDGs, he suggested to review the mechanism of production and consumption and the role

of cooperatives is to take the relevant policy matters to the government. He further

suggested that the cooperative vehicle for development is to be used to create massive

awareness about the efficient use of natural resources and also adopt new technology to

increase production and productivity. He also emphasized that the successful model of

Cooperatives viz. AMUL need to be replicated in other countries.

Shri Prakash P. Naiknavare, Managing Director, National Federation of Cooperative Sugar

Factories speaking on the occasion said that India is the Second largest Producer of Sugar

in the world, but the per capita consumption is the lowest and therefore, there is a need for

supportive policy to handle the surplus.

While delivering the Keynote Address, Shri Harvir Singh, Editor, Outlook Hindi Magazine

emphasized on the need for strong advocacy and lobbying by the cooperative sector. “The

cooperatives are neglected in policy-making because of less advocacy as compared to

other industrial bodies like CII, FICCI etc.”, he reiterated. He also stated that the services

rendered by cooperatives at the village level cannot be compared with the private

companies and hence, the role of cooperatives is a very significant in the rural areas. He

also emphasized on the need for youth involvement and strong leadership in cooperatives.

Citing the examples of the role of cooperatives in developed countries, he stressed on the

need of engaging professionals from Institutes like IRMA in Managerial position to run the

cooperative professionally.

Shri R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk & Marketing Federation Ltd.

(AMUL) speaking at the Symposium said that cooperative is the best model for giving small

farmers the fair price of their produce. “You must have trust & faith in cooperatives, then

only they can provide good results”, he said. He opined that Private companies or MNCs

cannot stand against a professionally managed cooperatives, as the business strategies of

cooperatives are diagonally opposite and member centric. He further emphasized on the

need for good political & professional leadership in cooperatives and also on the need to

involve youth in large numbers. Pointing out at AMUL - the biggest food company FMCG

with turnover of Rs.40,000 crores, he said that the owner of it is the 36 lacs Farmers of

Gujarat and not by Private or Government. He further added that a cooperative will be

sustainable only when it produce, process and market their products and will become a

solution for the problems of small farmers for sustainable development.

Shri Jalaj Shrivastava, IAS, Additional Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, speaking on the occasion emphasized on the need to

make agricultural cooperatives strong, so that middlemen do not exploit the small farmers.

He also emphasized on the need for processing of the food grain in which the role of

cooperatives is very important. He further mentioned on the benefits of integrated farming

like bee keeping, poultry, fish farming, mushroom cultivation etc. to augment the income of

farmers. Citing the example of successful cooperatives like AMUL, he urged the

cooperative fraternity for well-planned approach to their business activities in order to make

the societies profitable which will in turn benefit the members. He also stressed the need to

encourage the formation of SHGs to run small economic activities at first and those SHGs

later can be converted into a formal legal structure like cooperatives which can be treated

as a business enterprise.

On the occasion, a message on behalf of Regional Director, International Cooperative

Alliance – Asia Pacific (ICA – AP) was read by Ms. Anam Mitra, Communication Officer of

ICA – AP, New Delhi.

A painting competition for children was organized and as many as 90 Children in the age

group 6-15 years participated to draw paintings on any of the theme Agriculture / Farming

Area / Nature / Environment / Local People / Family. The paintings were evaluated by a

group of experts and the prizes were distributed by Shri Jalaj Shrivastava, IAS, Additional

Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in presence of

other dignitaries. The winner of first prize is Master Shubham Samantaray of Gyan Bharti

School, Second prize went to Ms. Puja Nardeo Singh of Sadhu Vaswani International

School, and third prize to Ms. Adiba Khan of Hamdard Public School. In addition, two

consolation prizes were given to Master Kartik, Green Field Public School and Ms. Suhani

Singh, St. Columbus School. All these paintings of the children will be sent to IE-NO

HIKARI Association of Japan for “The 26th Annual World Children’s Picture Contest”.

The symposium was attended by the Managing Directors, Board Members and

representatives of Delhi based Cooperative Organizations including the representatives of

National Level Cooperative Federations, Managers & Functionaries of different sectors of

cooperatives from Haryana viz. HARCOFED, HAFED etc., representatives of Sahakar

Bharti, students & teachers of ITI and Sri Ram College of Commerce, Officers of NCUI,

NCCT, TRIFED etc.

The programme was introduced & coordinated by Ritesh Dey, Deputy Director,

International Relations Division and Dr. K.N. Sinha, Director of NCUI proposed the vote of

thanks.

Shri Harvir Singh, Editor, Outlook Hindi Magazine delivering the Key Note Address

Shri R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (AMUL)

addressing the gathering

Shri Jalaj Shrivastava, IAS, Additional Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and

Farmers Welfare speaking on the occasion