New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the ICA Global Cooperative Conference 2024 and also launched the UN International Year of Cooperatives 2025 at an event attended by representatives of over 100 countries at Bharat Mandapam in the national capital.  Underlining the need to create global financial institutions which can finance co-operatives across the world, PM Modi lauded the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) for its huge role and said it was imperative to move beyond this in the future.

Emphasising the need to decide the direction of the global Co-operative Movement in the 21st century, the Prime Minister said: "We will have to think of a Collaborative Financial Model to ensure easy and transparent financing for cooperatives. He underlined the importance of pooling financial resources to support small and financially weak co-operatives. Such shared financial platforms can play an essential role in funding large projects and providing loans to co-operatives. He further highlighted the potential of co-operatives in enhancing the supply chain by actively participating in procurement, production and distribution processes."

He expressed confidence that the future of India's cooperative journey will get necessary insights from the Global cooperative conference and in return, the global cooperative movement will receive a new spirit and latest tools of the 21st century from India's rich experience of cooperatives. He also thanked the United Nations for declaring 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives. PM Modi highlighted that there were thousands of farmers, cattle breeders, fishermen, more than 8 lakh cooperative societies, 10 crore women associated with Self-Help Groups and youth involved in incorporating technology with cooperatives in India.

He stated that it was the first time that the Global Cooperative conference of International Cooperative Alliance was organized in India when there was an expansion of the cooperative movement in the country. The Prime Minister said that significant progress has been made in strengthening India's co-operative banking sector as over Rs 12 lakh crore is now deposited in co-operative banks across the country, reflecting the growing trust in these institutions.

"Our government has implemented several reforms to enhance the co-operative banking system, including bringing them under the purview of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and increasing deposit insurance coverage to Rs 5 lakh per depositor," he added.

PM Modi said that India sees a huge role for cooperatives in its future growth. He said that the government was forming multipurpose cooperative societies in 2 lakh villages where there was no society at present. He added that the co-operatives were being expanded from manufacturing to the service sector. He said that India is working on the world's largest grain storage scheme in the cooperative sector which would see warehouses being built across the country in which farmers could store their crops. This would benefit small farmers the most, he added.

Underlining the government's commitment to supporting small farmers through the formation of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), the Prime Minister said: "We are organising our small farmers into FPOs and providing necessary financial assistance to strengthen these organisations." Bhutan's Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji, Manoa Kamikamica, and around 3,000 delegates from over 100 countries are participating in the conference. Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), in collaboration with ICA and government of India, and Indian Cooperatives AMUL and KRIBHCO are hosting the conference.

/IANS