The Cooperative Approach: The Indian Perspective by K.K. Tripathy, Harekrishna Misra, Sagar Kisan is a wonderful and extensively researched look into one of the great traditions in India, namely the cooperative approach. This book covers all aspects ranging from the history of cooperatives, legal aspects of cooperatives, governance and future of cooperatives and in doing so goes much beyond simple documentation of these issues to offer insight and inspiration for anyone wishing to learn about the impact of member-owned enterprises on the Indian economy. What makes this book stand out is the coherent vision that it brings forth with regards to cooperation in an era dominated by individualistic and profit-seeking approaches to enterprise.
The essence of the book is an earnest and bold effort to encompass within its pages the entire history of cooperation in India from its philosophies to the current legal regime that governs it, to its future possibilities in new domains. The book begins with a well-grounded exploration of the philosophies of cooperation, seamlessly blending insights from great international minds and Indian philosophies, the rationale behind the prisoner’s dilemma concept, Elinor Ostrom’s groundbreaking research on the management of commons, fitting very well into the moral language of Sarvodaya philosophy of Gandhi and the ancient Indian belief in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, “the world is one family.” The combination of economic thought from around the world with Indian philosophies makes the beginning of the book very intellectually warm and sets the tone for a work that treats cooperation not merely as a business form but as a civilisational value.
The discussions on laws and regulations within the book are truly comprehensive and enlightening as the reader is taken through the various State Cooperative Societies Acts, Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, and the whole spectrum of organizations such as the Self-Help Groups and Farmer Producer Organizations. The discussions on the 97th Constitutional Amendment are particularly enlightening, tracing the recognition of the right to establish cooperatives as a fundamental right to the very letter. The book also takes the reader abreast with the 2025 National Cooperation Policy and the vision of harmonization and future readiness of the cooperative system. What stands out about this book is its member centricity aspect. The four types of members that exist – the user-members, the non-user members, the user non-members, and the non-user non-members – is truly an elegant conceptual classification within the book. As much as the book is truly passionate about youth participation in cooperatives, taking into account national demographic statistics including the median age of less than 28 years in India, it is able to make the case about engaging the youth in a truly enlightened manner by borrowing the ICA’s “5E” model.
The section dealing with cooperative banking is perhaps the most notable of all in the book. The discussion of the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act of 2020, the inclusion of Reserve Bank of India regulation over Urban Cooperative Banks, the creation of professional Boards of Management, and the new system of classification is executed in a manner of great expertise. In fact, the inclusion of concrete episodes dealing with institutions in trouble, such as the PMC Bank and the Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank, makes the chapter particularly relevant for its audience, supplemented by important international examples based on the resilience of Europe’s more than 2,600 local cooperative banks and North America’s credit unions. There are few sections in the book as inspiring as the one that deals with the restructuring of the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies into Multi-Purpose PACS. These societies, numbering more than 103,000, contribute the incredible amount of 41 percent of the total Kisan Credit Card loans issued in the country by value. Being the main artery of the cooperative credit system in rural areas, PACS are described in the book as being diversified not only in terms of credit but also in terms of input supply, storage, agri-processing, insurance, and retail, paints an inspiring picture of institutional renewal at the grassroots level, deeply resonant with the founding spirit of the cooperative movement itself, harking back to the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers.
In the book, the treatment of the history of policy is yet another subtle success, capturing very deftly the five stages that the cooperative sector in India has undergone since its foundation in 1904, starting with the Cooperative Credit Societies Act of 1904 and then progressing through the stage of administration from 1950 to 1990, the phase of liberalization and push for greater autonomy from 1990 to 2010, and finally entering the vibrant ‘Sixth Phase’ brought about by the establishment of a Ministry of Cooperation in 2021. The chronological classification serves to provide a useful framework to the reader to better understand the journey that has been made by the sector and how much of institutional experience and reform lies behind the present cooperative sector in India. The reader is bound to appreciate the great variety of cooperative successes in India as evidenced by the success stories of dairy cooperatives like AMUL, fertilizers cooperatives IFFCO and KRIBHCO, among others.
The forward-looking chapter focusing on future opportunities is particularly remarkable. The discussion of platform cooperativism, which focuses on workers’ ownership models instead of venture capital-based models in the gig economy, is one of the most stimulating ideas presented in the book, while the existence of real-life examples like Dhundhi Solar Energy Producers’ Cooperative Society, known as the world’s first solar cooperative, provides hope for the future. And, by presenting the mapping of opportunities with regard to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the book proves itself relevant to some of the most important issues of our days, including renewable energy, gender equality, and youth employment. Human resource management and technology-related chapters candidly deal with the issues of skills development and technology adoption in the sector, but at the same time, optimistically refer to the emergence of new institutions, such as the recently launched Tribhuvan Sahkari University and the broader environment of support from NCUI, VAMNICOM, and NCDC. Both these chapters capture the optimistic spirit that permeates the book, suggesting that proper investments into people and technology will allow the cooperative sector of India to successfully overcome the challenges of modernization. It is also interesting to note how the book engages with the issue of technology adoption by cooperatives. By discussing the digital membership systems, which are connected to Aadhaar, it demonstrates the intelligent application of technology to solve existing problems, such as the issue of duplicates or dormant membership, and by discussing core banking systems and digital market linkage across the PACS network, it shows how the cooperative sector adopts new technologies of the twenty-first century.
The collaborative feat that has been accomplished through the publication of this book alone deserves to be celebrated. It is obvious that the authors of this book have a great understanding of the cooperative sector in India, having distilled their knowledge of decades of development and changes in institutions, laws, and policies in a comprehensive yet easy-to-read book. The organization of this book, which is peppered with objectives and questions that will enable reflection, is an indication of an author who wants not only to document the cooperative movement but also to teach it.
In any case, what Cooperative Management: The Indian Perspective ultimately provides is the invitation to go on a unique journey into some of the most interesting and longest-standing institutional tradition of India in all the rigor of historical and legal facts and in the light of the sincere hope that the future holds nothing but positive prospects for the development of the Indian cooperatives. In any case, the book is an important addition to the literature dedicated to the topic of cooperative management in India and the story of how the movement became an intrinsic part of the lives of millions of farmers and workers in the country for more than a hundred years. The idea of how India’s cooperative movement becomes a cohesive and future-ready force is a good conclusion to a book which proves it very convincingly throughout all its chapters. And for those who want to know about the development of Indian cooperatives, the book provides both the source of knowledge and the source of motivation.
