• Lok Sabha passed a Bill to set up Tribhuvan Sahkari University in Gujarat’s Anand with an aim to create a qualified manpower for cooperative societies.

• The university has been named after Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, who was one of the pioneers of cooperative movement in India and instrumental in laying the foundation of Amul, Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah said during a debate in Lok Sabha on March 26.

• Tribhuvan Das Patel was among many others who laid the foundation of cooperatives in India under the guidance of Sardar Patel. Gujarat State Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is popularly known as Amul. The journey of Amul began in 1946 with 250 litres of milk in a town of Gujarat. Amul transformed into one of the world’s biggest dairy brands with a turnover of over Rs 60,000 crore.

Why the govt plans to set up such a university?

• The present education and training infrastructure in the co-operative sector is fragmented and grossly inadequate to meet the present and future demand for qualified manpower and capacity building of existing employees in cooperative societies. 

• It also lacks standardisation and quality monitoring mechanisms. 

• It is, therefore, essential that a comprehensive, integrated and standardised structure is created for education, training and research by establishing a national university to ensure a stable, adequate and quality supply of professionally qualified manpower for different categories of jobs in cooperatives such as managerial, supervisory, administrative, technical, operational, etc, and also address the long pending issue of capacity building of employees and board members in the cooperative sector in a pan-India and focused manner.

• In view of the above reasons, the government proposes to establish a national university in the cooperative sector.

• It would be a specialised university, the first of its kind, in the cooperative sector, to impart and promote cooperative education, training, research and development and thereby strengthen the cooperative movement in the country. 

• The university shall establish sector-specific schools such as dairy, fishery, sugar, banking, rural credit, cooperative finance, cooperative marketing, cooperative accounting, cooperative laws, cooperative audit, multi-state cooperatives, etc, in its campus or in the states that are the leaders in respective sectors. 

• The university shall also create a pan-India network of affiliated co-operative education and training institutes to achieve its objectives.

• It will have the capacity to train eight lakh people every year.

• There will be degree, diploma courses in the university and also PhD programmes. There will also be short duration certificate courses.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)