Urging the cooperative institutions to adopt modern technology and systems, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Sunday said this sector must promote the use of digital currency and cashless transactions. "It is my humble advice to all the cooperative institutions to ensure its contribution in the overall development of the society by adopting modern technology and systems," Singh said. "The cooperative sector has to upgrade its overall activities to compete with the private sector. Products of cooperative sector, their quality, packaging, storage, marketing, etc, have to be done as per the latest trends," he added. Watch what else is making news The minister was addressing the foundation day of the city-based Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (VAMNICOM) in Pune on Sunday. He said that use of electronic currency and cashless transactions have to be promoted by the cooperative sector. "VAMNICOM can play a major role to train the cooperative institutions according to the latest policies of the government," he said. Singh said that be it cooperative banks, dairies or any other institution, they have played a very important role in the implementation of recent demonetisation policy. "Many cooperative institutions are doing a good work by adopting latest technology and professionalism, for example Amul dairy, IFFCO, Saraswat Bank, etc, emerged as role models of excellent professional culture in the field of cooperatives," he said. The minister informed that the government is implementing cooperative education, training and developmental activities with the help of National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), National Council for Cooperative Training (NCCT) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) through integrated scheme on agricultural cooperation. "In the execution of the scheme, VAMNICOM is playing a very important role," he said. Singh said the cooperative sector has played a very important role in strengthening the agriculture sector. "The history of cooperatives has successfully completed more than 100 years in our country and its contribution has been accepted in various fields," he said.
