The Hindu : Karnataka News : Cooperative marketing agency to enter telecom sector

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 13, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Cooperative marketing agency to enter telecom sector

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, NOV. 12. The Karnataka State Cooperative Marketing Federation (KSCMF) has decided to enter the insurance and telecom sectors in a big way to tap the potential and increase its network of services in rural areas.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday, the principal secretary of the federation, A. Ramaswamy, said the federation would send a delegation to New Delhi to hold talks with officials of the Union Government and finalise the procedures.

Over one crore people had become members of various cooperative societies. "Even if 20 lakh people subscribe to our cellular services it is not difficult for us to launch the service."

Cooperative societies in Bangladesh were providing cellular services. But in India private players were providing such services, he said.

Referring to the insurance sector, Mr. Ramaswamy said a core group had been formed to discuss the formalities of entering the sector. The State Government should also bring out legislation to allow the federation to operate its business in the sector. Since a large number of farmers took loans from cooperative societies, they would be enrolled as policyholders, he said.

Prices on Web

The federation had been posting the prices of farm products on its website. A decision had been taken to link the website with landline telephones to enable the farmers to know the prices without any difficulty. Of the 32,804 cooperative societies in the State, 2,514 had become defunct, he said.

With the support of cooperatives, the federation had decided to cover 11 lakh farmers under the Yashaswini scheme this year. Under the scheme, certain healthcare facilities were being provided to the farmers who were members of cooperative societies. There were a large number of marginal and small farmers, who, on account of not being members of cooperatives were not covered under the scheme. In the healthcare sector, 110 hospitals had been identified to provide services.

National meet

The Rockefeller Foundation had shown keen interest in studying the implementation of the Yashaswini scheme in two taluks of the State. The federation and department officials were holding discussions with the foundation. A national-level conference on agricultural marketing would be held on November 19 in Bangalore, and the Union Minister for Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, would inaugurate it, he said.

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