Author: cprindia

Watch the full video (above) of the discussion between Ambassador Shyam Saran and Nimmi Kurian, moderated by Srinath Raghavan, where they discuss the massive exodus of Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine region of Myanmar, which has resulted in one of the largest humanitarian crises of recent times.

Historically regarded as stateless entities by the Government of Myanmar, nearly a million Rohingyas have left Rakhine and entered the neighbouring Bangladesh as well as Indonesia and Malaysia as refugees. India too faces the challenge of addressing over 40,000 refugees who have entered the country.

The ongoing debate on the Rohingya crisis tends to be focused on the charges of ethnic cleansing and concerns about extremism and terrorism emanating from Rakhine. Yet the underlying causes and the potential consequences of the crisis are dimly understood.

Through this discussion, the panellists attempt to delve deeper into the historical narrative, the complexities of the issue, the challenges it poses, and the possible solutions going forward.

Ambassador Shyam Saran is a senior fellow at CPR, a former foreign secretary and has served as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change, as well as chairman of the National Security Advisory Board.

Nimmi Kurian is Associate Professor at CPR and Faculty Advisor at the India China Institute, The New School, New York.

Srinath Raghavan is a senior fellow at CPR. He is also a senior research fellow at the India Institute at King’s College, London.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

As the 2017 Legislative Assembly elections in India draw closer, Uttar Pradesh (UP) will to go to polls between February-March this year. In the run-up to the polling, find below a curated analysis by CPR faculty to-date.

• Writing in Hindustan Times, Srinath Raghavan explains how the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) ongoing power struggle differs from the substantive political and ideological tussles of past socialist parties.
• Neelanjan Sircar analyses the chances of a BJP win in Hindu Business Line given the split within the SP, and the corruption charges against Mayawati in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
• In The Lucknow Gambit, Sanjaya Baru discusses the various potential outcomes of the UP elections, contingent on who benefits from the politics of demonetisation, and argues how the results will impact 2019.
• Writing in LiveMint, Srinath Raghavan compares the leadership and governance records of the SP in UP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu.
• In an op-ed in The Hindu, Neelanjan Sircar and Bhanu Joshi analyse religious polarisation and voting behaviour in the Upper Doab region of UP.
• In another piece in Hindi in Firstpost, Bhanu Joshi and Ashish Ranjan write on how the political volitility and changing equations of Western UP could swing the outcome of the state elections in any direction.

Post the announcement of Union Budget 2017, Accountability Initiative (AI) at CPR, which tracks government budgetary allocation and related expenditure for key social sector schemes annually, both through analysing government data and corroborating it with ground surveys run by their field staff, shares their full series of budget briefs (2017-18) on seven social sector schemes:

• Direct Benefit Transfer, Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile, GOI, 2017-18
• MGNREGS, GOI, 2017-18
• National Health Mission, GOI, 2017-18
• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, GOI, 2017-18
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, GOI, 2017-18 (Hindi Translation)
• Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin, GOI, 2017-18
• Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban, GOI, 2017-18

In a series of articles below, Yamini Aiyar, Avani Kapur and Abhishri Aggarwal break down the bottlenecks in fund-flows, which negatively impact implementation on the ground despite monies having been allocated, as well as provide sectoral and scheme-specific budgetary (allocation, expenditure, government reported outputs & outcomes) analysis over 2017-18.

Social sector allocations 

• Yamini Aiyar writes in Livemint and in a Hindi article in Amar Ujala that the budget has maintained the status quo, as far as social sector schemes are concerned, and has been ‘remarkably silent’ on restructuring the ‘financing architecture for social policy post the 14th Finance Commission’.
• Avani Kapur reiterates this in another article in Deccan Herald, writing that despite riding high on expectations, Budget 2017 did not offer any major changes in majority of social sector schemes.

Complexity of fund-flows

• In Huffington Post, Yamini Aiyar explains why the money allocated by the union government fails to reach the ground, primarily due to the complex mechanism of fiscal transfer or fund-flow, which makes tracking and accountability very difficult. (Hindi translation)

The complexity of this mechanism of money-flow has been captured in the animated video (above).

• In a follow-up and related article, Abhishri Aggarwal analyses the lack of effective implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, as well as the need for a transparent, well-maintained monitoring system.

In addition, AI produced the following data visualisations:

• Jan Dhan, Aadhar, and Mobile (JAM),
• Allocations in key social sector ministries & programmes,
• Swachh Bharat Mission (Hindi)

AI also put together a series of 6 short learning videos, which break down how to analyse the budget, and can be accessed here. The animated video embedded above is also available in Hindi.

Post the announcement of Union Budget 2018, Accountability Initiative (AI) at CPR, which tracks government budgetary allocation and related expenditure for key social sector schemes annually shares their full series of budget briefs (2018-19) on nine social sector schemes:

• Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
• Swachh Bharat Mission- Gramin (SBM-G)
• Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban (SBM-U)
• Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS)
• National Health Mission (NHM)
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)
• Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin)
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

In a series of visualisations and articles below, AI experts nuance the challenges of flagship Government of India schemes in the education, sanitation and health sectors.

In Where has the social sector money gone? Avani Kapur reviews Budget 2018 and critical questions on social sector allocations. Even as schemes have received minimal allocations, the Budget signals an important shift in the political narrative. Here’s why.

Learning in India’s public schools

Can India realise its demographic potential in the absence of a far-sighted policy for education? In India’s secondary education challenge, Avani Kapur makes a case for why there is a need to urgently reform the secondary education system. Accountability Initiative also analyses the allocations and expenditures of two flagship education schemes – the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – and the quality of education provided.

Swachh Bharat Mission: A reality check

The Swachh Bharat Mission is racing towards its target of achieving an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2019, constructing more than 2,000 toilets every hour, but will the gains from such increased coverage be sustainable? Read this Accountability Initiative analysis for more.

In Stumbling towards Sustainable Sanitation, Avani Kapur and Devashish Deshpande write on the challenge of ensuring that open defecation-free villages and cities are truly ODF, and more crucially that they remain so.

Healing the Public Health System

There is pressing need to focus on health systems strengthening, and on reforming two critical arms of the National Health Mission – human resources, planning and budgeting – writes Avani Kapur in ‘Patient’ approach to better health. Yet even as the new National Health Policy of 2017 urges a widening of the service net, can outcomes improve without reform of underlying institutional shortcomings? Explore a series of visualisations on the issue here.

In addition, AI produced the following data visualisations:

In his Budget 2018 speech, the Finance Minister emphasised how Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) have reduced corruption, and delivered services at people’s doorsteps. Take a look at the scale of DBT.

The Centre for Policy Research hosted a conference on ‘Urban Transformations in India’ with a special focus on informal settlements in Delhi in August, 2015. Watch full video sessions below of the two-day long conference.

Day 1:

• Presentations on Urban Transformations research (above)
• Panel discussion followed by the Q&A session

Day 2:

• Presentation of key findings from Cities of Delhi
• Keynote address by Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi
• Session 1:Places and Institutions
• Session 1: Q&A
• Session 2: Processes and Institutions
• Session 2: Q&A

The conference brought together researchers, policy makers, government officials as well as community representatives and activists from across the board to discuss and debate ideas.

For additional resources, visit the dedicated page.