Stakeholders’ Meeting on Collective Entrepreneurship
Participants at the Collective Entrepreneurship in India.
Representatives from co-operatives, academia, and development agencies participated in the two day stakeholders’ meeting on collective entrepreneurship, organised at the UL Cyber Park (held by the Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd. or ULCCS) on 18 and 19 August 2016. The meeting was organised by the ICA Asia and Pacific in collaboration with the National Co-operative Union of India, the National Labour Co-operative Federation (India) and CICOPA (ICA’s sectoral organization on artisanal, industrial and service co-operatives) and was co-funded by the European Union under the “Co-operatives in Development – People-Centred Businesses in Action,” grant to ICA. The meeting was aimed at providing a platform for sharing expert knowledge on industrial, artisanal and service-provider co-operatives in India in particular and south Asia, in general. The meeting largely focused on ‘workers’ co-operatives to learn about their ownership and management models as well as ‘social’ co-operatives and the role they can play in building a sustainable society. The meeting was attended by key stakeholders from the labour co-operative movement of India, the International Labour Organization (Colombo), Action Aid India, among others. Ms. Vasudha Mishra (I.A.S), Managing Director of the National Co-operative Development Corporation and Mr. N. Prasanth (I.A.S), District Collector and District Magistrate of Kozhikode were the key government representatives who shared their ideas as well as facilitated discussions on the subject matter. Dr. Thomas Issac, noted academic and finance minister of Kerala delivered an address on co-operatives and collective entrepreneurship on 19 August 2016. Mr. N. Satyanarayana , CEO-NCUI and Mr. Balu Iyer, Regional Director, ICA and Mr. Hyungsik Eum, CICOPA, among others facilitated the panel discussion that was organised to determine commitments from stakeholders and future action on the subject. ICA-AP proposed to undertake a report on the status of industrial, artisanal and service-provider co-operatives in India share the same at a regional workshop during the ICA-AP Regional Assembly in New Delhi in November this year.
