Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah will lay the foundation stone of India’s first national-level cooperative university, Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU), tomorrow, July 5, 2025, in Anand, Gujarat. The event will also be attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary. The initiative aims to build institutional capacity in the cooperative sector and realize the vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’.
TSU is being described as a historic and strategic initiative focused on capacity building, innovation, and employment generation in the cooperative sector. University will offer structured academic and training programs designed to meet the growing manpower requirements of India’s cooperative institutions, including dairy cooperatives, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), fisheries, and rural finance bodies.
According to Ministry of Cooperation, university is expected to train around 20 lakh cooperative personnel over the next five years, a significant step considering the sector currently employs nearly 40 lakh people and includes over 80 lakh board members. TSU will offer flexible programmes such as PhDs, degrees, diplomas, and certificates tailored to different operational levels within the sector. It will also develop a pool of trained educators through PhD programs focused on cooperative studies, a field currently underserved in India.
A key goal is to connect TSU with over 200 cooperative institutions across various states to build a national network, helping standardize and elevate the quality of cooperative education and training. In line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the university’s academic structure will be multidisciplinary and aimed at equipping grassroots-level organizations with both technical and managerial skills.
The university will also establish a dedicated Research and Development (R&D) council to promote innovative, cost-effective solutions for rural cooperatives. Officials say the council aims to fill a critical gap in India’s cooperative framework, which currently lacks an institutional setup for innovation-focused research. The R&D wing will also collaborate with reputed national and international institutions to introduce global best practices in India.
On the sidelines of the foundation ceremony, Amit Shah will also take part in a tree plantation under the “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” campaign, a growing national movement that encourages people to plant trees in honour of their mothers. In addition, he will unveil an NCERT-developed educational module to help schoolchildren understand the values and impact of the cooperative movement.
The event is expected to be attended by several dignitaries, including Union Ministers of State for Cooperation Krishan Pal Gurjar and Muralidhar Mohol, Gujarat Education Minister Rishikesh Patel, Cooperation Minister Jagdish Vishwakarma, Ministry Secretary Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, and TSU Vice Chancellor Dr. J.M. Vyas.
