By Dr. Rakesh Agarwal, Secretary General, Risk Management Association of India and Director, Smart Online Course
The launch of Mission SAKSHAM by the Reserve Bank of India marks a defining moment in the evolution of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs). A structured, nationwide capacity-building initiative covering approximately 1.40 lakh participants is a systemic intervention aimed at reshaping how cooperative banking institutions operate, govern risk and adapt to a rapidly changing financial ecosystem.
At its core, Mission SAKSHAM recognises a fundamental truth: resilience in banking is no longer built solely on capital adequacy, but on capability adequacy.
Cooperative and rural banks occupy a vital position in India’s financial architecture. They serve segments that are often not fully covered by mainstream commercial banking, including small farmers, micro enterprises, self-help groups, low-income households, local traders and semi-urban communities. Their strength lies in local presence, community trust and relationship-based banking. However, the same institutions now face a more complex environment marked by tighter regulation, digital transformation, cyber risk, governance expectations, credit quality pressures and rising customer expectations.
Capacity building is therefore no longer a soft development activity. It has become a strategic requirement for stability, compliance, customer service and long-term survival.
Bridging the Capability Gap Across Roles in UCBs
Urban Cooperative Banks operate with a unique structural complexity. They balance community-driven objectives with increasing regulatory expectations. This duality creates significant capability gaps across roles.
Board members often require deeper exposure to enterprise risk governance and independent oversight frameworks. Senior management must evolve from operational control to strategic risk leadership. Risk officers and compliance professionals need to integrate regulatory expectations with real-time risk monitoring. Audit heads must transition towards risk-based auditing methodologies. IT teams face the growing challenge of cyber resilience, digital risk and AI adoption. Frontline employees must strengthen their understanding of customer due diligence, fraud detection and service quality.
Mission SAKSHAM rightly targets this wide spectrum of stakeholders. However, the diversity of roles demands equally diverse and specialised learning pathways.
This is where digital learning becomes critical.
Digital Training as a Force Multiplier for 1.40 Lakh Learners
Key capacity gaps in cooperative and rural banks
1. Governance and board-level understanding
Many cooperative and rural banks have strong community roots, but board-level capability may not always match the complexity of modern banking. Directors need deeper understanding of credit risk, regulatory compliance, cyber risk, asset-liability management, fraud prevention and customer protection.
Capacity building must therefore begin at the top. Board members should not merely approve policies. They must understand risk dashboards, audit observations, early warning signals and capital adequacy implications.
2. Credit appraisal and monitoring
Rural and cooperative banks often lend to agriculture, small businesses and informal-income borrowers. These segments require relationship-based credit assessment, but this should be supported by stronger documentation, cash-flow analysis and post-disbursement monitoring.
Weak appraisal can lead to loan concentration, poor recovery and rising stress. Training must cover sectoral risk assessment, priority sector lending, collateral evaluation, crop-linked repayment cycles, MSME cash flows and early warning indicators.
3. Compliance culture
Compliance cannot remain a checklist activity. Cooperative and rural banks need a culture where every employee understands KYC, AML, customer due diligence, fair practices, reporting obligations and data protection. Mission SAKSHAM’s focus on compliance functions is therefore highly relevant.
A weak compliance culture creates regulatory risk, reputational risk and operational vulnerability. Training should be continuous, practical and role-specific.
4. Technology and cyber risk
Digital banking has changed the operating model even for small institutions. Customers now expect UPI, mobile banking, digital payments and faster service. However, digitisation also increases exposure to cyber fraud, phishing, data leakage and system downtime.
Rural and cooperative banks need capacity in IT governance, cyber hygiene, vendor management, digital transaction monitoring, incident response and customer awareness. IT staff require technical training, while branch staff need practical training on fraud red flags and safe digital servicing.
5. Internal audit and risk management
Internal audit in smaller banks often remains transaction-focused. The need now is to move towards risk-based internal audit. Audit teams must be trained to identify control weaknesses, fraud patterns, cyber gaps, process deviations and governance failures.
Similarly, risk management should cover credit, liquidity, operational, market, technology, fraud and reputational risks. A simple but effective enterprise risk framework can help smaller banks identify and monitor vulnerabilities before they become crises.
Rural banking challenges need special attention
Rural banks face additional challenges linked to agriculture and local economic conditions. Recent rural economy discussions have highlighted issues such as climate change, rising production costs, smaller landholdings, groundwater stress and the need for timely and transparent credit access.
These challenges directly affect repayment capacity and credit risk. Therefore, capacity building in rural banks must include climate-sensitive lending, agricultural risk assessment, crop insurance awareness, financial literacy, SHG financing, MSME credit and recovery strategies suited to rural borrowers.
The Risk Management Association of India has developed a structured digital learning ecosystem specifically aligned to such large-scale initiatives. Our programs are designed to complement regulatory capacity-building efforts by offering modular, role-based and application-driven learning. This structured approach ensures that learning is not fragmented but aligned with institutional roles and regulatory priorities.
SAKSHAM as a Philosophy: Capability as the New Currency
The word “SAKSHAM” translates to capable, but in the current financial context, capability extends far beyond individual competence. It represents institutional readiness, governance maturity and technological adaptability.
This philosophy aligns deeply with the mission of Risk Management Association of India and Smart Online Course. Our approach has consistently centered on building capability ecosystems rather than isolated skill sets. Whether it is strengthening risk culture at the board level or enabling frontline staff to understand compliance nuances, the objective remains the same: to create institutions that are structurally sound, operationally agile and future-ready.
Areas where training should be focused
Capacity building should be designed around practical banking functions, not only theoretical modules. Important training areas include:
Governance and leadership: Board responsibilities, risk appetite, regulatory expectations, audit committee effectiveness and ethical conduct.
Credit risk management: Appraisal, documentation, monitoring, NPA prevention, restructuring discipline and recovery.
Operational risk: Process controls, maker-checker discipline, cash handling, reconciliation, outsourcing and fraud prevention.
Digital banking: Cybersecurity, UPI fraud prevention, IT controls, digital customer service and incident reporting.
Compliance: KYC, AML, customer protection, grievance redressal, regulatory reporting and fair lending practices.
Financial inclusion: Rural credit delivery, SHG linkage, priority sector lending, women borrowers, MSMEs and financial literacy.
Customer service: Complaint handling, transparency, responsible lending and trust-building.
Role of regional language training
One important feature of Mission SAKSHAM is the intention to provide training content in regional languages wherever feasible. This is a practical and necessary step. Cooperative and rural banking employees often serve local communities in regional languages. Training in English alone may not result in effective understanding or behavioural change.
Regional language modules can improve learning outcomes, especially in areas such as fraud awareness, customer communication, compliance procedures and digital safety.
Moving from one-time training to continuous learning
The real challenge is not conducting training once. The challenge is building a continuous learning ecosystem. RBI’s initiative also aims to create a sustainable, self-reinforcing learning framework for the UCB sector.
Banks should develop annual training calendars, role-based certification, refresher courses, practical case studies, branch-level workshops and periodic assessments. Training outcomes should be linked to performance, audit quality and risk indicators.
Measuring the impact of capacity building
Capacity building should not be judged only by the number of people trained. Its impact must be measured through outcomes such as:
– Reduction in audit irregularities
– Improvement in compliance reporting quality
– Faster and better customer grievance resolution
– Lower operational errors
– Improved loan monitoring
– Reduction in fraud incidents
– Better cyber awareness among staff and customers
– Stronger board-level review of risk issues
Without measurement, training risks becoming a formality.
A Defining Moment for Cooperative Banking
Mission SAKSHAM represents a decisive shift in how capacity building is perceived in the banking sector. It moves the conversation from compliance-driven training to capability-driven transformation.
In my view, this initiative has the potential to redefine the cooperative banking landscape in India. If executed effectively, it will not only strengthen individual institutions but also enhance systemic stability and depositor confidence.
The cooperative banking sector has always been rooted in trust and community engagement. The challenge now is to complement these strengths with professional governance, advanced risk management and digital capability.
This is where collaborative efforts between regulators, industry bodies and learning institutions become critical.
As we move forward, RMAI and Smart Online Course remain committed to supporting this transformation by delivering scalable, relevant and high-impact digital learning solutions that empower every stakeholder within the cooperative banking ecosystem.
The success of Mission SAKSHAM will ultimately depend on how effectively capability is built, sustained and translated into action. If done right, it will not just make cooperative banks capable. It will make them future-ready.
