The first step towards establishment of a Co-operative University was the declaration made by the Honourable Chief Minister Shri Tarun Gogoi in the budget speech on 15th March of 2010 to establish a "Regional Institute of Cooperation and Management"at Sivasagar.Accordingly a Budget Provision of Rs. 1 crore was made in the budget of Cooperation Department for the year 2010-11. The budget provision was made under Chief Minister's Innovative scheme. The Assam state assembly passed the Rajiv Gandhi University of Cooperative Management Bill, 2010 recently for setting up the states’ first such university exclusively for the cooperative sector. The University, to be named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is coming up in upper Assam’s Sivasagar district. The university will offer courses on co-operative management and, at the same time, will train existing manpower in both the government and the private sector to manage the cooperative sector.