Canara Bank has been entrusted with the responsibility of setting up the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) The ministry of human resources development has come out with an order in this regard. HEFA is being set up in order to give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions, including IITs, IIITs, NITs, IISERs, and Central universities. The bank said it has initiated steps to operationalize HEFA. The ministry had earlier said HEFA would be jointly promoted by the identified promoter and the ministry with an authorized capital of Rs 2000 crore with the government contributing Rs 1,000 crore. HEFA will raise up to Rs 20,000 crore for funding projects for infrastructure and development of world class labs in IITs/IIMs/NITs and such other institutions.
