Foreign varsities to invest money earned back in India

NEW DELHI - The foreign investors setting up educational campuses in India cannot repatriate the money aboard and will have to invest the amount back into the sector in the country, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said here Wednesday.

“No foreign investor can repatriate money abroad but has to put it back into the educational sector in India. We have already discussed the issue with foreign investors and they have agreed to it,” Sibal told reporters during an interaction at the Indian Women Press Corps.

When asked about the incentives for foreign varsities to invest in India, he said: “India is a huge market which can meet the growing demand of quality human resource globally. This is the most important incentive for them to invest in India.”

The Foreign University Bill cleared by the cabinet last week allows foreign education providers to set up their campuses in India and offer degrees.

Dismissing allegations that the measure will serve the elite class only, Sibal said: “By 2020, we will need 35,000 more colleges and 800 universities and the government alone cannot build the infrastructure for these. So we have to open up the sector for private and foreign players.”

“All foreign universities will be subject to national laws and accreditation process. If they set up the campus in collaboration with state universities they have to abide by state educational laws and the same will follow for central universities,” he said.

Sibal said his ministry has proposed to set up a National Education Finance Corporation (NEFC) to provide financial assistance to entities interested in setting up educational institutions.

“We are talking to the planning commission about it as it is just a proposal as of now. If NEFC is established, private, aided and government institutions will have access to it for finance on the pattern of soft loans or at priority sector lending rate which are not available to the sector at present,” Sibal said.