India to host global alliance of cooperatives

India will be hosting the General Assembly and the Global Cooperative Conference of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) from 25 to 30 November.

The announcement was made by Ashish Kumar Bhutani, secretary in the union ministry of cooperation, Jeroen Douglas, director-general of ICA, and U S Awasthi, managing director of IFFCO Ltd, at a joint press conference in New Delhi on Monday.

The first such event to be organised in India in 130 years, the event will take place at the iconic Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, the ministry of cooperation stated in a release.

The theme of the conference is “Cooperatives Build Prosperity for All,” which is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi.’

The conference will also see the launch of the United Nation’s International Year of Cooperatives-2025

The union ministry of cooperation proposes to use the event to showcase products and services offered by cooperatives with `Indian Villages’ as its theme. 

India accounts for a fourth of the number of cooperatives across the world and their membership, according to Ashish Kumar Bhutani

Indian cooperative sector is also the fastest growing globally with initiatives like computerisation of primary agricultural cooperative societies and formation of new cooperative models like National Cooperative Organics Ltd (NCOL), National Cooperative Exports Ltd (NCEL), he added.

ICA director-general Jeroen Douglas pointed out that India, one of the founding members of ICA, has been playing a pivotal role in global cooperative movement, while IFFCO has been a significant partner with its ranking as No 1 in the World Cooperative Monitor for three consecutive years. 

Cooperatives with their sustainability and scalability can play a major role in addressing global issues like climate crisis, biodiversity and many others. They will also ensure equity in distribution of wealth, including natural resources in a more democratic manner, he added.

In this context, it is worth noting that IFFCO’s subsidiary IFFDC has been among the leading earners of Carbon Credits in the past several years

IFFCO has also take up planting of 10,000 Peepal (Ficus Religiosa) saplings to compensate for possible carbon emissions. 

Over 1,500 representatives from 100 countries and distinguished guests like the president of United Nations Economic Council (Ecosoc), president of International Cooperative Alliance, representatives of the UN, members of the ICA are expected to participate in the event.