NEW DELHI: The government on Monday announced creation of a Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) with an initial capital base of Rs 1,000 crore, which will leverage funds from the market and work to create infrastructure in top institutions like the IITs.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also spoke about creating a regulatory architecture for ten public and ten private institutions to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions.

“The HEFA will be a not-for-profit organisation that will leverage funds from the market and supplement them with donations and CSR funds. These funds will be used to finance improvement in infrastructure in our top institutions and will be serviced through internal accruals,” he said.

He also announced a proposal to establish a digital depository for school leaving certificates, college degrees, academic awards and mark sheets, on the pattern of a securities depository.

“This will help validate their authenticity, safe storage and easy retrieval,” Mr. Jaitley said.

He said 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas will be opened in the remaining uncovered districts over the next two years.

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