Federation of Tibetan Co-operatives in India Ltd. (FTCI) - New Delhi

After seeking asylum in India, one of the most urgent needs at that time was a long-term rehabilitation and sustainable development of Tibetan settlement. In the view of growing importance of sustainable development of Tibetan settlements, the cooperative movement was started in several Tibetan settlements. Different Tibetan co-operative societies were registered under the different State Co-operative Societies Act; to support their members in various aspects. Such as supply of Agriculture Inputs,marketing of agricultural produces and handicrafts, financial assistance, and generating employment opportunities. Department of Home, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has worked on detailed plan to streamline the co-operative societies and to make cooperative societies self-reliant.

However, for many years, these cooperatives were functioning in isolation. There was no common forum for these cooperatives for the exchange and discussion on ideas, challenges encountered and successes achieved. There was also one common issue among all these societies, which need to be addressed i.e., marketing of handicrafts and agricultural produce from of these cooperatives. All these common challenges and requirements gave rise to the need of bringing all the co-operative societies functioning under one apex body in the form of federation. With the consistent guidance from CTA, the first federal body of Tibetan co-operatives was legally registered on 20th April 2005 under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 (39 of 2002), as Federation of Tibetan Co-operatives in India Ltd. (FTCI) which is commonly known as Federation.

The area of operation of the Federation shall be confined to the States of Karnataka, Chhatisgarh, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal.

Vision of Federation

• To make the Tibetan settlement viable and sustainable.

• To strengthen and to provide assistance to member co-operative societies.

• To preserve and promote Tibetan culture and traditions.

• To strive for attaining sustainable markets for the products of member co-operatives societies.

• To generate employment opportunities within the Tibetan community especially for the youth.

Board of Director of Federation and its tenure

The Chairman of the member co-operative societies will represent on behalf of their society in the general body. Of these 15 general body members, 9 members are elected through secret voting among them to constitute the Board of Management, who is responsible for laying out the policies guidelines but the final authority of the Federation lies on the General Body members. The duration of Board of Directors of Federation is 5 years.