Cooperative university to power dairy sector-Meenesh Shah
The Government’s belief in the power of cooperatives in rural development and nation-building has led to pathbreaking initiatives under the vision “Sahkar-se-Samriddhi” of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji. Since the establishment of the Ministry of Cooperation in 2021 under the able leadership of Amit Shah, Hon’ble Minister of Home and Cooperation, it has been the endeavour of the Government that the cooperative sector gets the same opportunities as the corporate sector.
Among many other initiatives, the establishment of Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU) is an unprecedented step in strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. Dairying has been a traditional household activity since time immemorial; however, due to decades of neglect during British rule, India turned into a milk-deficit, import-dependent nation. Post-independence, the rising population led to declining milk availability, and dependence on imports increased. The milk production during the 1950s and 1960s was stagnant and hovered around 20 million metric tonnes. The per capita availability of milk declined from 130 grams per day to 112 grams per day during this period.
In such a situation, a glimmer of hope emerged from a remote city in Gujarat — Anand — a city synonymous with India’s cooperative success story and known as India’s milk capital. It is the very place where a successful cooperative movement inspired by the freedom struggle led to the establishment of Amul in 1946. The dairy farmers of the Kheda region were being exploited by middlemen and Polson Dairy, who arbitrarily decided prices and controlled the intake of milk on their whims and fancies.
The dairy farmers decided to call a “milk strike” and stopped supplying milk to Polson. They approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for help, who inspired them to form their dairy cooperative under the guidance of young freedom fighter Shri Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel. Shri Tribhuvandas Patel spearheaded the formation of village dairy cooperatives in Anand — and thus Amul was born, with just two village dairy cooperative societies and about 250 litres of milk collection.
The movement quickly spread and more dairy farmers started joining. Shri Tribhuvandas Patel also brought Dr Verghese Kurien to Amul and inspired him to remain with Amul. Amul has never looked back since then — becoming a household name today and rated amongst the world’s strongest food brands.
While dairying was flourishing in Gujarat post-independence, it continued to struggle elsewhere in the country. When the then Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri ji visited Anand to inaugurate a Cattle Feed Plant in 1964, he was keen to study the success of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat and spent a night at Ajarpura village.
Impressed by the success of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat, Shastri ji promulgated the formation of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965 to replicate the success of Amul across India. In 1970, NDDB initiated the implementation of Operation Flood (OF) — the world’s largest dairy development programme — following the Anand model of cooperation. OF — or the White Revolution — gained momentum and started showing tremendous results. Post-OF, NDDB has continued spearheading the development of the dairy sector through large-scale programmes such as the Perspective Plan and National Dairy Plan I.
These large-scale dairy development programmes have eventually transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world’s largest milk producer — and today, India contributes one-fourth of the global milk output alone. It has also enabled the dairy farmers to get the maximum share of the consumer rupee, as cooperatives pass on 75–80 per cent of the revenue to the dairy farmers through remunerative, fair, and transparent pricing. The dairy cooperatives not only provide safe and nutritious milk and milk products at affordable prices to consumers but also provide livelihoods to crores of dairy farmers across the country.
During OF implementation in the country, NDDB experienced that such large-scale programmes, dealing with crores of people, needed rural management professionals with skill sets to manage complex rural environments. This led to the birth of an institution — namely the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) — that was established with a vision of promoting sustainable, ecologically friendly, and equitable socio-economic development of rural people through professional management.
IRMA was established in 1979 with financial and technical support from NDDB, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), the Government of India, the erstwhile Indian Dairy Corporation, and the Government of Gujarat, which provided land.
IRMA has now become a premier institution dedicated to cooperative and rural management. It is a matter of great pride that IRMA is now set to achieve a historic milestone with the establishment of Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU) at its campus in Anand, Gujarat — rightly chosen as the place for India’s first cooperation university.
IRMA is all set to expand its legacy with the establishment of TSU. The university has been aptly named after Tribhuvandas Patel ji, who started the cooperative movement in the dairy sector.
Since then, dairy cooperatives have been the shining example of the most successful cooperative model for any agricultural commodity in the country. The success of dairy cooperatives has inspired the spirit of cooperation in many other sectors.
The unique and remarkable idea of a dedicated cooperative university was first proposed by Shri Amit Shah ji, the first Hon’ble Minister of Cooperation, to honour Tribhuvandas Patel’s contributions to India’s cooperative movement and to create a world-class institution that fosters research, policy formulation, and leadership development in the cooperative sector. This university will be one of its kind — and India’s first dedicated cooperative institution for higher education. The TSU will leverage IRMA’s 40+ years of expertise in rural and cooperative management.
The TSU will help strengthen the rural economy, develop the ecosystem of self-employment and small entrepreneurship, increase social inclusion, and increase opportunities to set new standards in innovation and research.
It will impart technical education and management training in the cooperative sector; promote cooperative research and development; attain standards of global excellence; and strengthen the cooperative movement in the country through a network of institutions.
The TSU will be registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 as a body corporate and will be declared an institution of national importance. It will have the capacity to provide education to about 8 lakh candidates every year.
The colleges affiliated with the university will be opened across the country. IRMA will continue to function as an autonomous school under TSU and will be declared a centre of excellence for rural management. As a result, there will be an infusion of new blood into the cooperative movement — with young, dynamic professionals graduating from TSU. India will get a new cooperative leadership — inspired by the spirit of cooperation and equipped with modern education.
The establishment of an exclusive national university for cooperatives will surely prove to be a landmark initiative and will go a long way in grooming manpower resources aligned to the needs of the sector.Tribhuvan Sahkari University will not just be another academic institution — but a movement to ensure that India’s cooperative sector grows further by leaps and bounds.
By blending traditional cooperative values with modern management practices, it aims to produce leaders who can replicate the Amul success story in agriculture, banking, and other rural enterprises. Passage of the TSU Act could not have had better timing — as not only is it the International Year of Cooperatives of the UN, but more importantly, we are also embarking on the journey of establishing viable PACS / dairy / fishery cooperatives in the uncovered panchayats and villages, and strengthening the existing PACS / dairy / fishery cooperative societies across the country in the next five years — ushering in White Revolution 2.0 under the guidance of the Ministry of Cooperation.
The main objective of this initiative is to empower crores of small and marginal farmer members to reap the benefits of equitable regional development and bridge the gap in rural prosperity.
The Government of India has targeted to establish 2 lakh multipurpose PACS / dairy / fishery cooperatives in the next five years to cover all the gram panchayats under any form of cooperative — with the help of NABARD, NDDB, and the National Fishery Development Board (NFDB).
As per the plan, NABARD will form about 70 thousand new multipurpose PACS (M-PACS); NDDB will form and strengthen about 1.21 lakh Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS); NFDB will establish about 12 thousand Fishery Cooperative Societies (FCS); and in addition to these, about 25 thousand new M-PACS / dairy / fishery cooperatives will be formed by the state governments.
Along with other resources, this massive effort will require lots of trained manpower and this is where the establishment of TSU will supplement our efforts and provide critical manpower support for the success of White Revolution 2.0. It will truly contribute to realising the vision of “Sahkar-se-Samriddhi” in India.
Through strong government backing and IRMA’s expertise, TSU is poised to become a global benchmark in cooperative education — invigorating and revitalising the cooperative sector, driving India’s next phase of rural prosperity, and making India a developed nation by 2047.
Source : Dairynews7x7 April 9th 2025. Daily Pioneer by Meenesh Shah(The author is Chairman and Managing Director of NDDB and Chairman of IRMA, with four decades of experience in the dairy sector; Views are personal)