Accountability Initiative’s tweetathon on fiscal devolution research

Accountability Initiative conducted a tweetathon between 26 August and 2nd September to disseminate key findings from our study on the State of Social Sector Expenditure 2015-16. This study assessed the recent changes in fiscal transfers from the Union to the states in FY 2015 – 16 with the acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission (FFC) recommendations by the Government of India in February 2015.

The tweets look at how this proposed fiscal devolution impacted social sector investments and public service delivery in the states, specifically for education, health and sanitation. The study carried a preliminary evaluation of 19 state budgets and an in-depth analysis of 6 states, namely Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The tweetathon took off with a series of posts that summarise findings from the preliminary examination of 19 states, subsequently sharing details from the 6 focus states, and how these were impacted with respect to: i) changes in the overall share of union transfers, ii) changes in the composition of funding (tied and untied), iii) changes in investment patterns for social sectors, as well as explore fund transfer in key schemes in education and health.

To continue our dissemination, we have storified our tweetathon in the following links:

Click here State of Social Sector Spending in India 2015 – 16 

Click here Understanding Fiscal Devolution in States 

Click here Conclusions and Way Forward for Social Sector Spending 2015 – 16 

Follow @AccInitiative and @CPR_India handles with the hashtag #PAISA2016 for more tweets on fiscal devolution and public service delivery in India.

To learn more about fiscal devolution proposed by the FFC, read an earlier interview with AI researchers here.