Overview

Two forms of business unique to the Indian setting

After studying Sole Proprietorship and getting an overview of the forms of business organisation, this chapter turns to two forms of business that are distinctly Indian in origin and character — the Joint Hindu Family (JHF) Business and the Cooperative Society. Neither is a creature of a single all-India company-type statute the way a joint stock company is; a JHF business grows out of Hindu Law itself, while a cooperative society is created by voluntary agreement among persons and then registered under a Cooperative Societies Act. The Andhra Pradesh Intermediate Commerce syllabus (Telugu & Sanskrit Akademi) draws on the same body of Hindu personal law and cooperative-law principles that Commerce and Business Studies courses across India teach, so the reasoning in this chapter applies well beyond Andhra Pradesh.

The chapter is organised in two halves: the first covers the Joint Hindu Family Business — its meaning, the Hindu-law basis on which it rests, who a Karta and coparceners are, and its merits and limitations. The second half covers the Cooperative Society — its meaning, essential features, the principles of cooperation it is built on, how it is registered, the main types found in practice, and its own merits and limitations. A closing comparison ties the two together, since students are frequently asked to distinguish one from the other.