Professionalism in co-operatives for rural credit

Abstract

This paper deals with professionalism required in rural credit cooperative as business enterprise and also as an institution of its members in addition to that in formulation and implementation of macro rural cooperative credit policies. It begins with defining professionalism for each of these three. It then goes on to discuss changes required in cooperatives internal structure, role and approach of their leadership and management, and HRD to accomplish both enterprise goals (such as business growth, loan recovery, and financial viability), and institutional objectives (such as member participation, self-regulation, and prosperity). Harnessing potential created by these changes would also require changes in Cooperative Law, Banking Regulation Act, Interest Rates and Institutional Development related macro-policies. The restructuring proposals in all of these aim at making rural credit cooperatives to be member-friendly and driven rather than government/NABARD/RBI driven with better governance, accountability, and services.