Future and New Thoughts on Co-operative Banks

The co-operative movement in India is more than a century old; regulation thereof is also more than a century old with the first major impetus provided by the passage of the Co-operative Society Act in 1904. The co-operatives have come a long way and have seen many ups and downs since then; they have played the original role in financial inclusion and taking care of banking and credit needs of the lower and middle strata of society, in the length and breadth of India, more specifically even in the remote villages. The paper identifies the need of co-operative banks in the lowest tier in serving the needs of the community. [Speech delivered by Shri R. Gandhi, Deputy Governor at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of National Institute for Rural Banking (NIRB) ].