The central Government has signed an agreement with Canara bank to set up Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) called the Higher Education Finance Agency (HEFA).
It will be a joint venture between the HRD ministry and the bank.
It is formed to give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions.
NBFC will raise funds from the market and also mobilize CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds from PSUs/Corporates and lend to government-run higher educational institutions for promoting research and innovation.
The HEFA would finance the civil and lab infrastructure projects through a 10-year loan.
HEFA will leverage the equity to raise up to Rs. 20,000 crore for the funding of world-class infrastructure at the IITs, IIMs, the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and such other institutions.