The expansion of India’s higher-education sector has led to a 20-percent increase in the number of Indian students taking out education loans in the latest 2009-10 quarter, compared with the same period a year ago, and banks expect the loans to grow by 40 percent in the next couple of years, The Hindustan Times newspaper reported. In the last three years, eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, 12 federally becked universities, and seven new Indian Institutes of Management have started operations, and even though public higher education is hugely subsidized, the elite management and engineering institutes have raised tuition over the years. In addition, private expansion, especially of engineering, medical, and management colleges, has also fueled the demand for loans as these institutions typically charge much higher tuition than their public counterparts. Banks are now happier to lend, they say, because of the growing ability of borrowers to repay these loans.