RISE Scheme – Infrastructure Development in All Govt. Higher Educational Institutions

Soon the central government of India will launch the RISE Scheme in India. Under this scheme all the Educational Institutes that provide higher studies will get funds for infrastructural development from the central government at much lower cost. The central is keen to provide every possible facility to the students who are availing higher education such as engineering, Architecture, Masters in Business and so on.

Launch Details

The scheme was announced by the Central Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley on 1^st February 2018. While presenting the Central Budget for the financial year 2018-19, Jaitley has announced about this scheme. This scheme will be launched for next 4 years with Rs. 1 Lac Cr of budget allocation. Scheme last date is 31 Dec 2022.

Key Features

Objective: Key objective of the scheme is to make available quality education system for the students. Improved educational institutions, equipped with latest technology will create more human resource in the nation. With this view the scheme has been launched.
RISE Scheme: The full for of the scheme name is Revitalising of Infrastructure and System in Education. This scheme will focus on the infrastructural development of such institutes that are centrally funded currently. From IITs to IIMs – all institutes will be covered under this scheme.
New Plans: Under this scheme new schools and institutions for the backward classes like scheduled tribe will be opened. Also several programs will be launched under this scheme for the teachers’ training and development.
Goal: The loan will be given to the institutions so that they can expand more, use more updated equipments, more buildings and also get expanded libraries and study materials in the institutions.
Loan system: Under the scheme all the new as well as old Centrally Funded Institutions will get loans for 10 years. The interest on these loans will be paid by the government. Only the principal amount shall be paid by the institution.
Subsidised Loan: As per the reports, newly established Centrally Funded Institutions (CFI) will have to pay only 25% of the total principal amount. The rest will be paid by the government.
Funding: The loan will be disbursed through a non-banking institution namely Higher Educational Financing Agency. The agency will channelize the loan from market to the institutions. As mentioned the loan will be given for 10 years.

Loan Distribution

The HEFA will channelize the loan amount. The total of Rs. 1 Lac Cr budget will be spent on 13 institutes in chunks. Among all the 13 types of institutions, IITs will get the maximum share of loan amount. The institute-wise funding is as follows:

	Name of the Institutions	Amount of Fund
1	Language Institutes	Rs. 1000 Cr
2	Planning & Architecture Schools	Rs. 1500 Cr
3	Other Centrally Funded Institutions	Rs. 1700 Cr
4	Government Run Indian Institute of Technology	Rs. 2000 Cr
5	Set up in PPP mode IITs	Rs. 3000 Cr
6	Newly Opened 6 Indian Institute of Management	Rs. 4500 Cr
7	Indian Institute of Science Education & Research	Rs. 5000 Cr
8	Newly Opened Institutions	Rs. 6000 Cr
9	Research Promotions	Rs. 9000 Cr
10	Eminence Institutions	Rs. 10, 000 Cr
11	National Institute of Technology	Rs. 11, 300 Cr
12	Central Universities	Rs. 20, 000 Cr
13	IITs	Rs. 25, 000 Cr
	Total Fund	Rs. 1, 00, 000 Cr

Higher Education Financing Agency – How it works

About: The agency was set up by the Central Government of India in the year 2017 in partnership with Canara Bank. This agency has been set up only to mobilise the funding to the higher educational institutions.
Section 8 Company: This is a section 8 company. This means the company is mainly involved in charitable business. To mobilise Rs. 1 Lac Cr in market the company itself has to have Rs. 10, 000 Cr at least as capital.
Funding of HEFA: As said, the company needs Rs. 10, 000 Cr among which a major portion will be funded by the central government that is Rs. 8500 Cr. The rest amount will be paid by the Canara Bank. Afterwards the company can start mobilising the huge amount for this scheme.
Target: HEFA has the target till December of the year 2022. Within this span of time company will have to complete all pending projects under HEFA including this scheme.
Loan Disbursement: The loan amount will be disbursed to the contractors directly by the HEFA. Vendors are required to submit certification of execution agency & the educational institutions to receive the loan amount.
Repayment of Loan: The loan amount must be paid within 10 Years of time. However the authority has set different rule for different institutions. Based on their revenue and business, the loan repayment time and rule will be set.

This will be one of the major schemes by Indian government. For the IITs, the yearly grant of Rs. 10, 000 Cr will be replaced by loan of Rs. 25, 000 Cr. This will help them to expand more. On the other some of the older IITs have raised a question of loan burden which wasn’t there in earlier times. Earlier they were getting aids, now they have to pay the amount within 10 years which will be a huge burden on them. Overall the scheme will benefit many institutions and students across the nation.

RISE Scheme – Infrastructure Development in All Govt. Higher Educational Institutions