On Monday, the government introduced the ‘Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill, 2025’ in the Lok Sabha with the objective to produce specialised human resource for the cooperative sector. With this, the prestigious Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in Gujarat is set to become country’s first national cooperative university.
Named in honour of Tribhuvandas Patel, one of the most prominent cooperative leaders of the country and founder of Amul dairy in Anand, the new university will aim to develop skilled professionals for various roles in the cooperative sector, including technical, managerial, administrative, supervisory, and operational positions.
The Need of the University
The Bill emphasized that a national university specifically focused on cooperatives was needed due to the current fragmented and insufficient educational infrastructure in the sector, which is unable to meet the growing demand for qualified professionals in cooperative societies.
The Objective
The Bill, introduced by Minister of State for Cooperation Krishan Pal Gurjar, seeks to establish the university with a focus on cooperative education, training, and research to strengthen India’s cooperative movement. The university will provide technical and management education and training in the cooperative sector and will foster co-operative research to achieve global excellence.
Status of IRMA
IRMA is currently registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Once the Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill, 2025 becomes an Act, the IRMA society will be dissolved. IRMA will then be integrated into the university as one of its schools and will be declared as a Centre of Excellence in rural management.
Sector Specific Schools
The university will start sector specific schools in the areas such as dairy, fisheries, sugar, banking, rural credit, cooperative finance, marketing, law, accounting, multi-state cooperatives, and auditing. These schools will be based in Anand or in states that lead in the specific sectors.
Nationwide Network of Education & Training
As per the Bill’s statement, the university will also create a nationwide network of affiliated institutes for cooperative education and training to support its goals.
The university will have 4-5 affiliated colleges or institutions in those states which have high concentration of co-operative societies. On the other hand, states having lower number of co-op societies will have 1-2 affiliated colleges or institutions.
In addition, the university will utilize existing mass e-learning platforms, such as SWAYAM, a government portal that provides online courses.
Appointment of Chancellor
The central government will appoint a distinguished individual as the university’s chancellor, and the institution will collaborate with other universities, colleges, institutes, and cooperative societies to drive research and development in the field of cooperation.
