Government Plans To Raise Rs 1 Lakh Crore From HNIs And Private Players For Higher Education Infra       

The Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) may be mulling a plan to get private companies and high net worth individuals (HNIs) to contribute to a fund for construction of higher education infrastructure in the country.

The plan, which is being drawn up at the MHRD, will be presented to the cabinet soon. It involves a non-banking finance company (NBFC) that operates under the ministry. The NBFC called Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) will raise contributions in the form of both equity and debt instruments.

The design appears to be to raise Rs 1 lakh crore from the market. The money will be spent on funding ‘infrastructure requirements of educational institutions’.

According to Mint which has reported the existence of this plan HEFA has an existing equity funding of Rs 3300 crores. The ministry will take it up to Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 crores in an effort towards eventually raising Rs 1 lakh crore.

Sources cited in the report say that this plan will have three benefits. “One, structured and clean private funding. Two, outside experience of managing higher education funding. And three, curb chances of manipulation at the institutional level.”

Strangely, the funds being channelled into the HEFA corpus will not count as corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend – this is because CSR money may not be allotted to equity contributions.

The government on its own appears to want to infuse Rs 50,000 crore equity into HEFA. It’s not clear where the money will come from or if this would be seriously pursued in the immediate future.