PM Modi to address Bengal from Visva-Bharati University Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the centenary celebrations of the Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan, on Thursday through video conferencing. The West Bengal governor and the Union education minister are also present during the ceremony. Founded by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, Visva-Bharati is the oldest central university in the country. Tagore, a Nobel laureate, is one of the most revered icons from West Bengal, a state which will go to the assembly polls in the first half of the next year.