The policy and regulatory focus should be on the promotion, development, and growth of cooperatives, with a particular emphasis on consistent and dedicated reforms to reduce political and administrative control, assuring autonomy for sustained growth
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, December 11, 2023: The policy and regulatory focus should be on the promotion, development, and growth of cooperatives, with a particular emphasis on consistent and dedicated reforms to reduce political and administrative control, assuring autonomy for sustained growth, recommended Satish Marathe, Director, Central Board, Reserve Bank of India. He was speaking on the theme of ‘Enhancing Rural Economy at Grassroots through Cooperative Structure’ at an Expert Talk, organised by the National Economic Forum in New Delhi.
Recommendations
The other recommendations, provided by the veteran cooperative leader Mr Marathe for undertaking policy reforms in the cooperative sector in India, include: The emphasis should be on cooperatives as economic enterprises and not for profit organisations as opposed to non-profiting institutions. The targeted policy focus by the respective state governments should be creating multi-purpose cooperative societies, district central cooperative banks for each district, and primary agricultural credit societies. A special effort for creating cooperatives in new, emerging, and vital sectors like agro-processing, tourism, and fisheries is required at the central and state levels. A focus should be placed on a case by case outlook and analysis for “sick” cooperatives through a viability assessment protocol as per IBC for the purpose of their revival.
Problems And Challenges
Marathe initiated his talk by expressing serious concern about drafting cooperative laws in the country, tracing their evolution and importance for undertaking targeted policy reforms. He aptly explained the progress of the cooperative sector in India, covering significant historical and current developments. He elaborated on existing problems and challenges in the operations and governance of the cooperatives in India and how policy reforms can be curated and implemented to effectively address and resolve the stagnancy in their growth and development. He described cooperatives as economic enterprises and explained their crucial role as drivers of rural development as well as a acting a crucial engine for India’s growth trajectory.
The Expert Talk commenced with a quick round of individual introductions by the attendees. A brief introduction of the National Economic Forum was delivered by Mr. Abhishek Singh. This was followed by a description of the ongoing projects at the National Economic Forum by Jatin Mathur. The expert, Mr. Satish Marathe, delivered prudent insights on the theme, “Enhancing Rural Economy at Grassroots through Co-operative Structure”.
Attendees in particular included Mr. Prafulla Pathak (President, Solar Energy Society of India (SESI), Mr. Sandeep Vempati (Economist), Mr. Raghuram, Mr. Mohit Dave (International Cooperative Alliance), Mr. Ganesh Gopal (International Cooperative Alliance), Mr. Abhishek Singh (NEF) , Mr. P. Ramgopal (NEF) , Mr. Rajeev Pathak (NEF) , Aparajita Kumar (NEF), Jatin Mathur (NEF) , Shubha Tiwari (NEF), Harsha Pareek (NEF), Hemant Mishra (NEF), Bhaskar Joshi (NEF), Yash Kapur (NEF).
The queries from the audience were specifically raised on the issue of existing “sick” cooperatives and how they should be managed and governed. In addition, the perceptions around cooperatives quite often also become a platform for contestations and corruption, with a need for governance reforms in cooperatives at both state and district levels. A specific query on identifying pertinent policy problems and existing research gaps was raised to understand the intricacies of this sector better.
