Policy Update
Sandra Menon
Background
For over a hundred years, India’s cooperative movement has supported grassroots economic life, from village credit societies and sugar mills to national dairy giants. While there are more than 8 lakh functional cooperative institutions involving around 30 crore people across the country, the sector was long functioning without an apex national university exclusively for cooperative management, research and governance. For decades, education and training in the sector remained fragmented in state-level cooperative institutes, regional training centers and general business schools whose curricula seldom corresponded to the distinct ethical, legal and operational realities of user-owned enterprises.
The institutional push to bridge this gap gained momentum post the creation of the dedicated Ministry of Cooperation in July 2021 under the mandate of “Sahakar Se Samriddhi” (Prosperity through Cooperation). Instead of setting up a new institution from scratch, the government decided to anchor the national university in Gujarat’s Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).
Founded in 1979 by Dr. Verghese Kurien as part of Operation Flood, IRMA has spent over four decades in pioneering professional rural management education. The legislative framework was introduced in Parliament through the “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University Bill, 2025 which was passed by Lok Sabha on 26 March 2025 and Rajya Sabha on 1 April 2025 and received the Presidential assent on 3 April 2025.
The Act was notified in the Gazette on 4 April 2025 and came into force on 6 April 2025. The Act declared the university as an Institution of National Importance (INI) and named it after Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, the pioneering founder of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul) and an architect of India’s cooperative dairy revolution.
Built from an existing, established institution, TSU got off the ground almost immediately, rather than spending years setting up basic administration. Leadership was established, the Governing Board and Executive Council were constituted in June and July 2025, and official Statutes and Ordinances were notified shortly thereafter. For its proposed national rollout, the Gujarat government has set aside 125 acres of land in Anand for a dedicated campus and Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah laid the foundation stone for the new university complex on July 5, 2025, and a ₹500 crore one-time capital corpus grant from the Central Government.
Functioning
As compared to other organizations which solely run on the basis of the Unitary Academy concept, Tribhuvan Sahkari University is organized under the statutory concept of Hub-and-Spoke Model, enabling the university to acquire a national presence through this model. Anand serves as the hub of this university, which develops the nation-wide curriculums, conducts research in doctoral and faculty level and fixes the norms of accreditation and affiliation in case of cooperative education.
Within the statutory regime, the functional autonomy of IRMA is ensured by virtue of the fact that the institute has been provided with a dual governance system, where the Vice-Chancellor at the top end heads the Executive Council while IRMA operates as a self-reliant Centre of Excellence under its own Director and Board of Governors.
At the pinnacle of the university’s governing structure is the Vice-Chancellor, appointed by the Central Government as the highest authority in executive and academic matters, who is also the chairperson of the Executive Council. Around the Executive Council are various councils such as the Academic Council, the Board of Affiliation and Accreditation, and a separate Research and Development (R&D) Council. The academic infrastructure of the university is segmented into special verticals for cooperative banking, agribusiness, legal governance, and auditing, with a combined digital arm that deals with multi-lingual e-learning and compliance courses for grassroots cooperative cadres.
The ‘spokes’ of the university spread across the country in the form of formal affiliations of the existing state cooperative training institutes, regional management institutes, and state cooperative colleges. While not subsuming the state structures, TSU integrates them into a common national network wherein students and grassroots workers can obtain degrees and diplomas validated by an Institution of National Importance with the help of digital modules in regional languages.
Performance
The evaluation of the performance of Tribhuvan Sahkari University in such an early period will involve evaluating the operational metrics of the University, the implementation of its academic programs right away, and the capacity goals for a number of years ahead as prescribed by parliamentary disclosures. The academic and research activities of the University began in the 2025-26 academic year, with the University offering the following postgraduate degree programs right away: MBA in Cooperative Management; MBA in Cooperative Banking & Finance; and MBA in Agribusiness Management. The baseline intake figures and capacity goals are presented in the table below.
Table 1: Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU) Academic Intake and Projections
| Level of Study / Programme Tier | Current Approved Intake (Year 1) | Target Intake (By Year 4+) |
|---|---|---|
| Doctoral Programmes (Ph.D.) | 10 seats | ~60 seats |
| Postgraduate Programmes (MBA / M.Sc.) | 583 seats | ~9,600 seats (Combined UG & PG across Hub & Spokes) |
| Undergraduate Programmes (BBA / B.Com) | 30 seats | Integrated under degree target |
| Diploma Programmes | 25 seats | ~16,000 seats |
| Short-term & Certificate Programmes | Pilot cohorts | ~8,00,000 certified per year |
Source: Ministry of Cooperation; Written replies to Rajya Sabha, July & December 2025.
The figures above reflect the extent of capacity building anticipated from the university network. Among the many identified courses in various disciplines, the overall vision of TSU is to build over 20 lakh professionals in the coming five years and conduct regular skilling and certification training of about 8 lakh people annually after the spoke network of affiliate universities takes shape.
This model of funding the institution depends on a single time central grant of Rs. 500 Crores for infrastructure development while the recurring expenses will be taken care of by a combination of government grants, enterprise sponsorships, and self-funding academic courses. In particular, the capital outlay will be focused on the building of the Anand campus which covers 125 acres, research laboratories and digital e-learning systems, while the cost will be covered from budgetary allocation and charges for courses.
Apart from counting degrees earned in the classroom, there are other important focuses of this university under four institutional heads: standardization of governance and accounting courses in co-operatives in India; management feeding cadres for rural financial institutions and dairy federations; conducting policy research for cooperative marketing and credit delivery; and developing continuous technological skilling modules for PACS secretaries and board members.
Impact
Although it will take years to see the full impact of institutions on India’s economy, the setting up of Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU) is structurally important in the short run to India’s cooperative system. Perhaps the most apparent outcome is seen in the process of professionalizing governance at the grassroots level.
As the central government pushes ahead with its initiative for computerization across over 63,000 PACS in the country and tries to increase their number, lack of well-trained management and auditing professionals has always proved to be a major bottleneck. Professional governance in addition to administrative efficacy goes further in transforming the local power dynamics through the inclusion of professionally competent personnel in the PACS. By introducing standard methods of bookkeeping, objective criteria for lending, and proper documentation, the professional form of governance helps in breaking away from the past where the landholding class and local patrons dictated how rural credit was accessed.
Secondly, the university closes an important gap in human capital requirements of large cooperative enterprises. The producer federations in milk, sugar, fertilizer and fishery industries find themselves increasingly competing with private firms and thus need leaders with modern skills in agribusiness, supply chains and finance without compromising the cooperative ideals. These federations in the past had to depend on lateral entry from corporate sectors where the employees had no understanding of member-based governance systems or promotion of employees within who lacked knowledge of modern supply chains and finance techniques. Through specialized MBAs, PGD and executive programs, TSU will help these commercial cooperative firms recruit from a specialized talent pool that can manage competitive pressures without giving up cooperative principles.
From a wider perspective, granting INI status to a cooperative university raises cooperative studies from peripheral vocational courses to a legitimate academic and professional discipline in India, at par with top engineering and management institutions. Such positioning is essential in attracting young professionals to rural development from a sector that is perceived as archaic and bureaucratic to an engine of economic development through innovation and technology in the country.
Emerging Issues
In the process of shifting from legislative creation to complete national implementation, a number of issues need to be considered regarding Tribhuvan Sahkari University. The most important issue in this regard is the maintenance of the same level of academic excellence throughout the hub and spoke system.
Although the main Anand campus will have all the advantages of the faculty and academic rigour of IRMA, many state-level cooperative training institutes will lack the facilities of the digital infrastructure, regular faculty, and research capability. In order to ensure that degrees and diplomas awarded through affiliated centers are on par with the degrees conferred at the main center, there will be need for thorough monitoring and academic auditing. Otherwise, there could be a hierarchy among the degrees awarded by these centers.
The second problem is one of finding a balance between financial viability and access. Considering the fact that many of the students who enroll at this institution and PACS trainees would hail from rural and agricultural backgrounds, the fee structures should not be very expensive. Since the ₹500 crore budgetary allocation at the center is purely a one-time grant for capital infrastructure development, future operational sustainability demands meticulous structuring. To prevent the university from becoming too dependent on expensive self-funded courses that will cause estrangement amongst the poor student body from farming backgrounds, the university hopes to meet its recurrent costs through consistent grants, corporative support from multi-state cooperatives, and consultancy and auditing services to state federations.
The challenge of linguistic and regional diversity is yet another difficulty. There are many differences in the cooperative laws, agricultural produce, and institutional forms from one state to another, ranging from multi-state dairy federations in the west, fisheries cooperatives in the coastal areas, and handloom societies in the east. The nation-wide books have to be translated into different regional languages without compromising on conceptual rigour. As the state cooperative laws vary from one region to another, there is a danger of having a clash between the national syllabus and the state laws. This challenge is overcome by ensuring that TSU has a curriculum that allows the state spoke centers to incorporate their state’s cooperative laws and bye-laws.
Lastly, the adoption by cooperative institutions is an essential element. Unless the state cooperative federations and the PACS harmonize the rules regarding recruitment of personnel to give priority to the accredited TSU qualifications, the incentive for rural youth to get these qualifications may be lost. Without mandatory or at least statutory recognition of such qualifications by the state cooperative departments, the whole process may suffer.
Way Forward
A series of concrete policies and actions could go a long way in ensuring that TSU becomes a credible anchor institution of the nation:
Fast-track Affiliation of State Institutes: Work out a concrete plan for facilitating infrastructure development at state institutes and their affiliation with TSU in a time-bound manner. This must entail budgetary allocations for equipping digital classrooms, laboratories, and training infrastructure for teachers in state institutes before linking them with the national network.
Localized Curriculum Deployment: Translation of core certificate courses and regulatory modules into regional languages would be helpful for grass-root level social work professionals who are working beyond the realms of the English or Hindi-speaking zones. Curriculum needs to incorporate the bye-laws specific to the states along with other national guidelines.
Industry-Academia Apprenticeships: Construct pipelines for internships with top multi-state cooperatives (Amul, IFFCO, KRIBHCO, and State federations of dairies and credit institutions) to gain operational experience while studying. Immersion programs and apprenticeships are mandatory to provide management skills for solving problems in rural cooperatives.
Continuous Capacity Audits: Periodic audits of the teaching quality and placement reputation of the affiliated spoke centers should be undertaken in order to ensure standardization. The formulation of transparent standards for grades and online learning will help ensure that the credentials of TSU remain prestigious.
Mandatory Recruitment Linkages: Consult state cooperative departments to make changes to the rules of services by making the degree/certification offered by TSU as an essential or preferred qualification for administrative, management, and audit positions within state federations and district cooperative banks.
References
- Ministry of Cooperation, Government of India. (2025). The “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University Act, 2025, Gazette Notification Nos. CG-DL-E-04042025-26229 and CG-DL-E-04042025-262290, 4 April 2025.
- Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India. (2025). Cooperatives University: Rajya Sabha Written Reply by Union Minister Amit Shah. Release ID: 2205068, 17 December 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2205068®=3&lang=1
- Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India. (2025). Tribhuvan Sahkari University: Approved Annual Intake and Infrastructure Corpus Grant. Release ID: 2147167, 23 July 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2147167
- PRS Legislative Research. (2025). The “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University Bill, 2025: Bill Summary and Legislative Brief. https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-tribhuvan-sahkari-university-bill-2025
- Akashvani News / Newsonair. (2025). Parliament passes Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill, 2025 to establish Institute of Rural Management as National Cooperative University, 1 April 2025. https://newsonair.gov.in/parliament-passes-tribhuvan-sahkari-university-bill-2025-to-establish-institute-of-rural-management/
- Drishti IAS. (2025). India’s First National Cooperative University: Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU). https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/india-s-first-national-cooperative-university
- Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). (2025). Institutional Transition and Academic Framework under TSU Act. Anand, Gujarat.
About the Contributor
Sandra Menon is a Research and Editorial Intern at IMPRI and a first-year Master’s student in Public Policy at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai. Her academic interests lie in public policy and governance.
Acknowledgement
The author extends sincere thanks to the IMPRI team for their guidance and support in developing this Policy Update.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation.
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