Since 2010, the Accountability Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research has been tracking social sector spending in India in key programmes. Last month, it released four papers that tracked budget and fund flows in elementary education, public health and Panchayats. These included:
- How much does India spend per student on elementary education? Analysing the relationship between per student public expenditure and learning levels, as well as the inefficiency of government expenditure.
- Rules vs responsiveness: Towards building an outcome-focused approach to governing elementary education finances in India.
- Value Subtraction in Public Sector Production: Accounting Versus Economic Cost of Primary Schooling in India: Through comparing both the “accounting cost” difference of public and private schools, and the “economic cost”, analysing what it would take public schools, at their existing efficacy in producing learning, to achieve the learning results of the private sector.
- A contemporary analysis of fiscal transfers to rural local government in India: Covering three broad aspects of rural local bodies (RLB) in India – i) ‘core functions’ of Panchayats, ii) cost incurred for these core services, iii) incomes and expenditures of RLBs.
- Review of intergovernmental fiscal transfers for health: lessons learned and looking ahead: Empirical evidence about the effectiveness and efficiency of fiscal transfers from central to state governments, especially with regard to improving health outcomes.
A detailed discussion on the implications of the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendations on social sector spending, and what should be the key research questions, going forward, followed. CPR president Pratap Bhanu Mehta moderated the discussion. The full video of the panel discussion can be viewed above.
