Videos

Ahead of the release of Union Budget 2023, our lead Avani Kapur shares her top five predictions for the budget considering recent trends in allocations and releases, especially for social sector, concerning:

1. Capital Expenditure
2. Time bound Social Sector Schemes like PMAY-G and JJM
3. Appeasement measures ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections
4. Allocations for MGNREGS
5. Schemes concerning women, children, and nutrition

The panel aimed to push the debate on the new opportunities and barriers in moving towards a more holistic public finance management system that strengthens the implementation of social welfare programs through the policy cycle – from formulation, execution to finally evaluation. Speakers:

1. Arun Sharma, Officer on Special Duty to MOS, Electronics & IT and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
2. Saurabh Garg, CEO, UIDAI, Government of India
3. Shrayana Bhattacharya, Senior Social Protection Economist, World Bank in India
4. Avani Kapur, Senior Fellow at Centre for Policy Research & Lead at Accountability Initiative (Moderator)

Bureaucracy makes the country’s development aspirations a reality. On the eve of 75 Years of Independence, we bring you insights from public administrators who are enabling Responsive Governance through their work.

Bureaucracy makes the country’s #development aspirations a reality. On the eve of #75YearsOfIndependence, we bring you insights from #PublicAdministrators who are enabling #ResponsiveGovernance through their work.

@MittaliSethi @Pravimal_IAS @Minal_IAS @Simikaranias @CPR_India pic.twitter.com/qdl6pbeene

— Accountability Initiative (@AccInitiative) August 14, 2022

India's public finance management has always presented a dichotomy where on one hand several welfare programmes remain under-budgeted and states remain under-resourced, while at the same time, there are crores of rupees lying unspent in bank accounts. While there is no systematic way of fully estimating the figures, and often cited estimated states that at least 1 trillion rupees lay as float in government bank accounts. To understand this dichotomy and delve into new innovations that can solve some of the challenges in the current design of India's Public Finance Management system, we spoke with Dr. Santhosh Mathew, Country Lead Public Policy and Finance, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and a former IAS officer.

Any robust PFMS can be made more agile by tracking funds through the budget cycle from budget formulation, to execution and finally, evaluation. The pre-Budget period was thus an opportune moment to reflect on the shortcomings of the existing systems and the best practices associated with a focus on data and scalability. In order to spark a longstanding dialogue on what can constitute an agile PFMS and inform evidence-based next steps, the Accountability Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research and MSC (MicroSave Consulting) brought together key stakeholders for a virtual panel discussion. Speakers Include:

1. Dr. Sekhar Bonu, Director General, Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, NITI Aayog
2. Mr. Satya Priya Rath, Additional Secretary, Department of Finance, Government of Odisha

Governance in India is complicated. A federal structure, decentralised functioning, elected representatives and bureaucrats, and quasi-government bodies all working together often means that making sense of how services are delivered to citizens can be a challenge in itself.

This panel discussion brought together leaders in the development space to stress the importance of strategic government engagement for development practitioners.

The discussion explored the challenges of governance, what kind of information is needed in order to create better strategies for government engagement, and how a tool such as Mapping Governance can support the work of development practitioners.

Teacher vacancies have been identified as a longstanding challenge for India’s education system. The National Education Policy, 2020 – the country’s milestone guiding document on education – too recognises a shortage of one million teachers and an urgent need to fill vacancies. But, aside from vacant posts, is there an actual shortage of teachers in India’s government elementary schools? 

Watch the video to learn more about the Rashtriya Kishore Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK), which is an adolescent health Programme within the ambit of the National Health Mission (NHM).

हम और हमारी सरकार कोर्स के कुछ सफल प्रतिभागियों के साथ एक सेशन और उन प्रभावों पर चर्चा जो वे पैदा करने में सक्षम हुए | हम और हमारी सरकार ऑनलाइन कोर्स का औपचारिक शुभारम्भ |

कार्यशाला का मुख्य उद्देश्य बजट के विभिन्न भागों और प्रक्रियाओं को बारीकी से समझना था ।

पैनलिस्ट उन तरीकों पर चर्चा करेंगे, जिनमें सिविल सोसाइटी के सदस्य, स्थानीय प्रशासन के साथ बेहतर तरीके से जुड़ सकते हैं। पैनलिस्ट वर्तमान चुनौतियों, और साथ में काम करने के महत्व पर चर्चा करेंगे और फिर मुख्य स्किल्स, ज़रुरी जानकारियाँ तथा उन उपकरणों पर बात करेंगे जो स्थानीय प्रशासन के साथ जुड़ने के लिए प्रभावी ढंग से काम कर पाए।

ग्रामीण भारत में फ्रंटलाइन में काम करने वाले सरकारी कर्मचारियों और अधिकारियों की महामारी के दौरान अनदेखी कहानियों का दस्तावेजीकरण करने के लिए Accountability Initiative द्वारा Inside Districts श्रृंखला शुरू की गई थी। कहानीकार जैसे माध्यम से यह सेशन इनको उजागर करेगा। 

This panel featured Luis Miranda from the Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP), Nikhil Dey from Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, and Poornima Dore from Tata Trusts. The panel was moderated by Avani Kapur, and touched upon the basics of governance and government functioning, the role of champions and changemakers, participatory democracy, digital governance, among other aspects. Key insights included the criticality of decision-making at the government level, the need for open dialogues, and information asymmetries in the digital age. The panel was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us, and co-hosted with Arthan.

Dotted by anecdotes from the field, this panel was an insightful discussion among Dr. Rukmini Banerji from Pratham, Ashif Shaikh from Jan Sahas, Biraj Patnaik from the National Foundation of India and Mirai Chatterjee from SEWA. The panel deliberated on empowering grassroots field workers with the right tools and information to effectively engage with government authorities. This panel was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us, and co-hosted with Arthan.

Avani Kapur is a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and Director of the Accountability Initiative.

Ritwik Shukla is a Research Associate at Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research.

The Future of Governance virtual forum opened with keynotes from Meenakshi Gopinath, Centre for Policy Research and Atishi, Member of Legislative Assembly, Delhi. They talked about how it is imperative to learn about democracy and politics to understand citizen-state engagement. Atishi shared valuable insights on electoral politics, the motivation of political parties and the role of civil society organisations in driving change.

In this panel, we were joined by Gaurav Gogoi, Member of Parliament, Uma Mahadevan, Government of Karnataka, Rai Mahimapat Ray, Government of Jharkhand, and Anjali Yadav, Government of Jharkhand. The session was moderated by our Advisor and former IAS officer TR Raghunandan. The panel offered insights on how the government perceives citizen engagement and explored the need to listen to diverse perspectives, use of social media to disseminate information, partnership between district administration and local academia. The session also explored deliberative democracy processes like Gram Sabhas. This panel was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us, and co-hosted with Arthan.

In this panel, we were joined by Sandhya Venkateswaran from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bharath Visweswariah from the Omidyar Network, and Zulfiquar Haider from Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, in an exciting discussion on grantmaking enabling civil society organisations and citizen engagement. The session was moderated by Avani Kapur. The discussion touched upon facets such as the importance of community platforms in magnifying citizens’ voice, emerging developments in CSR funding, building capacity through grants, sustainable collaboration and technology. This panel was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us, and co-hosted with Arthan.

In the Fireside Chat, Yamini Aiyar, Centre for Policy Research and Anurag Behar, Azim Premji Foundation explored how the core pillars of society view the state. They also reflected on their individual experiences of working with the state. Mr. Behar laid out some tensions between the state and the civil society while Ms. Aiyar discussed how frontline workers, who interact with the state every day, perceive their relationship with the state. This chat was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us, and co-hosted with Arthan.

The panel explored the importance of efficient and strategic citizen engagement, and the specific capacities that can drive this. Issues like civic education in schools, aspirations and pressures of government stakeholders, building coalitions among civic groups, and getting governments to make fiscal commitments, were also discussed. This panel was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us and co-hosted with Arthan.

In this masterclass, Rajesh Kasturirangan, Socratus shared Socratus’ work on using cognitive models to re-evaluate our understanding of governance, update it for the 21st century, and move towards what governance ‘ought to be’ rather than what it ‘is’. Complex governance challenges have long been known as ‘wicked problems’. Rajesh shared ways in which cognitive models and frames can be used to assemble a ‘wicked mind’ to tackle such challenges. This masterclass was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us and co-hosted with Arthan.

Avani Kapur, Director, Accountability Initiative was one of the panelists on Mirror Now, where the recent scholarship scam that has been unearthed by The Indian Express was discussed.

The masterclass, conducted by Rajika Seth and Sanjana Malhotra from Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research, aimed to help participants disentangle the practical implications of decentralisation in India. Through leveraging the ground experience of Accountability Initiative’s work, the masterclass decoded what decentralisation entails and how it unfolds on the ground to drive social accountability. This masterclass was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us and co-hosted with Arthan.

Join Meghna Paul and Ritwik Shukla as they conduct this masterclass on identifying fiscal roadblocks in India’s welfare programmes. This masterclass was a part of the ‘Future of Governance’ virtual forum, curated by us and co-hosted with Arthan.

Understanding State Capabilities is an experiential learning programme that allows development professionals and students to understand the bureaucracy system that is responsible for the delivery of public services such as education, health, nutrition and sanitation. Its primary objective is to build a community of practitioners and impactful leaders by equipping them with evidence-based research and tools to engage effectively with the government. 

महामारी के दौरान शिक्षा : कोविड-19 के समय संस्थाओं द्वारा अपनाई गई कार्यशैली" को समझने के लिए शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में कार्य करने वाली संस्थाओं के साथ वेबिनार |

AI organised this responsive governance special session to delve on the following questions on the fiscal response of State and Union governments in dealing with the pandemic: What lessons can be learnt from past trends in State finances? What are the adaptation strategies used by different States to ensure adequate fiscal space? What can a medium to long term fiscal package to stimulate the economy look like? How should the Union government generate finances and ensure adequate resources to States?

COVID-19 महामारी की वजह से पिछले कुछ महीने बहुत चुनौतीपूर्ण रहे हैं। ऐसे में ज़मीनीं स्तर पर सेवाएं पहुँचाने में नागरिकों द्वारा गठित संस्थाओं ने महत्त्वपूर्ण योगदान दिया है। पिछले हफ्ते CSO लीडर्स के साथ हमने एक वेबिनार आयोजित करा था। चर्चा देखें!

Do you know how the Union Government finances development in the States?

Understand how the Union Budget cycle functions.

Here's why citizens should involve themselves in governance.

Learn how public money travels from the Union government to the districts.

Learn how public money travels from the Union government to the districts.

Review Swachh Bharat Mission's progress.

Anganwadi workers are required to maintain manual records, filling upto 11 registers every day. Surprised? Watch for more.

Learn about the status of community health centres and child health in Gujarat.

Learn about the status of education in Gujarat.

This six part series helps people in navigating the 2017 Budget document.

This six part series helps people in navigating the 2017 Budget document.

This six part series helps people in navigating the 2017 Budget document.

This six part series helps people in navigating the 2017 Budget document.

This six part series helps people in navigating the 2017 Budget document.

This six part series helps people in navigating the 2017 Budget document.