Published Paper Details:

The Economy of India is rural in character and is basically concerned with agriculture and allied activities. The allied activities include animal husbandry, fisheries, apiculture, sericulture, floriculture etc. There are also a section of the rural population such as; small and self-employed businessmen, small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers & rural artisans pursuing occupations as potters, blacksmiths, cobblers, weavers, barbers etc. by way of inheritance & who are engaged in seasonal farming. This is due to the fact that neither their basic occupation nor agriculture provides round-the-year employment to many of them for sustaining their livelihood. These people are the pillars of rural economy. On account of the division among the people engaged in these limited means of earnings, unfair rivalry and dependence on village money lenders for urgent and immediate financial accommodation have seriously jeopardised the working and the socio economic life of each categories of community. Therefore neither agriculture nor the economy developed. Agriculture is the foundation on which the entire superstructure of the growth of the industrial and other sectors of the economy stands. Because of the local feel,, familiarity and the wide-spread existence of the co-operative societies at the grass-root level, they can play a very crucial role in implementing the various government sponsored schemes for the sustainable development of the weaker sections of the society in the rural and urban areas as well. The Co-operative societies have the potential to become the participatory institutions and at the institutional route for the development of the rural sector and hence the economy as a whole. Against the back drop, this paper seeks to assess the role of the co-operative organisations, specifically the co-operative banks, in the socio-economic development process of Odisha.