“Change with the times or fall behind” was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s message to the cooperative sector in the State on the occasion of the 64th Cooperative Week celebrations.
Opening the celebrations in Kozhikode on Tuesday, he pointed out that the cooperative sector will not be able to sustain unless it embraced digital economy. He urged the cooperative banks in the State to shift to core banking system at the earliest and do the needful to train the employees who were less proficient in the use of computers.
‘Empowerment through digitalisation of cooperative societies’ is the theme of the Cooperative Week celebrations this year. The banking sector was the most affected by digitalisation, making it more accurate, efficient and fast. By shifting into core banking, the cooperative banking sector will become more energetic and gain more acceptance among people, he said.
The Chief Minister highlighted the advantage of the proposed Kerala Banking, which would serve as an umbrella body for all cooperative banks in the state. However, he also warned against the difficulties that may arise with complete digitalisation. “ Like financial inequality, we have digital inequality too. The advantages of digitalisation will reach the grass roots only if we eliminate the digital divide. Still, there will be people who may not be able to absorb the changes in technology. The solution is to device plans to bring them closer to technology,” Mr. Vijayan said and prompted the bank employees’ unions to work towards the goal.
“Kerala is a State with 100% financial inclusion. We have to head towards 100% core banking now,” he said and added that the government was taking steps to implement a unified software in primary cooperative societies. The investment in cooperative banks is worth ₹83,153 crore. This is besides the urban banks, the rural agricultural banks and the farmers clubs, the Chief Minister added.
Minister for Cooperatives Kadakampally Surendran presided over the inaugural function. Mayor Thottathil Raveendran, M.P. Veerendramkumar, MP; MLAs M.K. Muneer and E.K.Vijayan, and District panchayat president Babu Parasseri were present.
Various programmes are being held across the State as part of the Cooperative Week, which concludes on November 20.
