This study examines India’s rising import tariffs under Make in India and their relationship with manufacturing performance during 2014–2024. Using correlation and regression analysis, it finds limited tariff impact, highlighting the importance of broader structural reforms.
This paper examines the gap between budget allocations and actual expenditure in India’s school education sector. It analyses major government schemes, including Samagra Shiksha, PM SHRI, PM POSHAN, STARS and DHRUV, along with institutions such as KVS, NVS, ATL and NCERT. Using secondary data from Union Budget documents, Ministry of Education reports, Demand for Grants and other official sources, the study looks at budget trends, expenditure patterns and implementation gaps. The findings suggest that budgetary allocations alone do not determine educational outcomes, as delays in fund utilisation, administrative challenges, implementation capacity and monitoring also influence how effectively resources reach schools and students. The paper concludes by suggesting measures to improve financial management, implementation, accountability and outcome-based planning in India’s school education system.
This study investigates the persistent gap between budget allocations and actual expenditure in India’s school education sector after NEP 2020. It identifies governance and implementation bottlenecks limiting effective fund utilization and argues that improving expenditure efficiency is essential to achieving equitable, high-quality education.
Excerpt This study examines the persistent gap between budget allocation and actual expenditure in the Indian school education system during 2018-19 to 2023-24. Using secondary data from official government sources, the study applies trend, comparative, descriptive, percentage, ranking, and graphical analyses to assess fund utilization. The findings reveal that despite a significant increase in budget allocations, a persistent expenditure gap remains, with the COVID-19 period recording the highest gap and notable regional disparities in fund utilization. The study emphasizes the need for improved financial governance, efficient fund utilization, and stronger administrative mechanisms to support quality education and evidence-based policymaking in alignment with SDG 4 and the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
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India’s education challenge is not merely about how much we spend, but how effectively and equitably we spend it. This study examines the gap between budget allocation and actual expenditure in education, highlighting chronic underinvestment, inter-state disparities and fund utilisation failures. Drawing on primary surveys and interviews alongside government reports and comparative data, the study finds that improving education outcomes requires more than higher allocations—it demands equitable resource distribution, effective utilisation, better infrastructure, skill-based learning and stronger governance.
Rapid advancements in generative AI enable the precise recreation of deceased individuals’ digital identities, exposing a critical regulatory void in Indian jurisprudence. Because traditional doctrines extinguish privacy rights upon death, domestic laws currently fail to address the commercial weaponization of digital remains. To resolve this, this study proposes the Unified Digital Afterlife Framework—a sui generis model that formally recognizes transmissible post-mortem personality rights and establishes a centralized licensing registry to preserve human dignity in a synthetic media landscape.
Public expenditure has improved educational infrastructure and welfare provisions, but student experiences reveal gaps in maintenance, teacher engagement, welfare delivery, and digital access. The study finds that effective implementation, rather than investment alone, shapes meaningful educational outcomes.
Despite significant increases in education budget allocations following the introduction of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, India continues to face a persistent gap between allocated funds and actual expenditure. This paper examines the budget-to-expenditure gap in the education sector by comparing the pre-NEP (FY 2018–19 to FY 2019–20) and post-NEP (FY 2021–22 to FY 2025–26) periods. Drawing exclusively on official sources, including Union Budget documents, Parliamentary Standing Committee reports, CAG audits, and PRS Legislative Research, the study analyzes national spending trends and compares implementation outcomes in Kerala and Jharkhand. The findings show that although Ministry of Education allocations increased by 29.5%, public expenditure on education remains around 4.1% of GDP, well below the NEP target of 6%. Scheme-level analysis reveals an average utilization rate of 86% under Samagra Shiksha, but this masks substantial interstate disparities, delayed fund releases, and uneven implementation. The study identifies governance weaknesses, administrative delays, and inadequate monitoring as the primary drivers of the budget-to-expenditure gap. It concludes that higher budget allocations alone cannot improve educational outcomes unless accompanied by timely fund releases, efficient utilization, stronger accountability mechanisms, and outcome-oriented financial governance.
Authors: Aamani Bhardwaj, Maria Martinez, Gauri Khanna, Folashade Ruth Abayomi-Mighty, Navani Sana, Swetna Mago Bhatia, Adewale Ademola Joshua, & Aminat Temilola Shaibu Introduction The nation that takes pride in being one of the only four countries to send a probe to the lunar surface and in which India made the pathbreaking discovery of water molecules on the lunar surface, and which has been home to universal education institutions like Takshila and Nalanda today stands with figures like these: India’s contribution to its educational needs still stands at around 3% of its GDP while the National Policy on Education 1968 and 2020 both recommend increasing public investment on education to 6% of GDP. It is concerning that as a proportion of the total budget outlay (₹53.5 lakh crore for 2026-27), education accounts for about 2.6%, down from around 3% in earlier budgets like 2019-20 (Karthika, 2025). Moreover, India’s literacy rate 77.7% nationally, with a persistent gender gap (84.7% for men versus 70.3% for women) and a state-level range from 96.2% in Kerala to 66.4% in Andhra Pradesh remains far from a uniformly “ideal” level across states (International Institute for Population Sciences [IIPS] & ICF, 2021). This paper aims at looking at what lies behind this constant gap in the demand, supply, allocation and optimum spending of the budgetary allowances. Is the real problem that the education allowance has never been 6% of the GDP, the recommended percentage? Or is it also that whatever amount is allocated never gets spent in the right manner, and on the right things, at the time when it would have most impact? Where do the allocated funds go if not spent on recommendations made? Why is the school dropout rate still very high in secondary years? The secondary-level dropout rate, while it fell from 13.1% in 2018 to 7.9% in 2024, remains nearly three times the rate observed at the elementary level (8.2% versus roughly 3%) and continues to affect girls disproportionately (8.1%) (ASER Centre, 2025; Department of School Education and Literacy, 2025). Can just higher allocation of funds resolve these issues? The problem lies much deeper. Young girls disproportionately drop out to take on household chores cited by roughly 42% of girls who leave school or because safe transport to school is unavailable, among the leading reasons for female discontinuation identified in national surveys on school non-attendance (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, n.d.). What will eventually bring about the major mindset shifts? There has been a visible effort by governments year after year, but the gaps don’t seem to lessen. The primary research objective of this report, is thus, to examine the extent of budgetary expenditure gaps in the Indian education system. This will be done by identifying the core reasons of why educational funds are underutilized in the first place. Secondly, this report will assess the impact of expenditure gaps on educational development how this expenditure inefficiency is actually demonstrated by on-ground realities of poor infrastructure, lack of resources and other similar deficiencies. Third, using a top-down approach, this report shall address administrative, institutional and policy-related bottlenecks affecting expenditure while also proposing policy recommendations for improving fund utilization and implementation efficiency (Upadhyaya, 2025; Mehta, 2025). While much of the existing scholarship on educational financing concentrates on allocation patterns, this report shifts focus to expenditure effectiveness examining not merely how much is budgeted, but how efficiently those resources are actually deployed. The report also explores the direct link between policy implementation and expenditure outcomes and provides recommendations targeted specifically at reducing leakages, delays and underutilization of resources (Motkuri & Revathi, 2024; School Education in the Union Budget 2026, 2026). The structure of the research report is as follows: An overview of educational financing in India and the larger background of public spending on education is given at the very outset. The policy framework that governs educational financing is then established by looking at significant educational policies and patterns in government spending. Building on this framework, the study looks at the many kinds of budgetary spending gaps and their causes, focusing on institutional, administrative, and policy-related constraints. The key findings are then analysed in terms of how they impact both the efficiency of spending and the progress of education. The study offers legislative recommendations and grassroots solutions before concluding with the macro implications of improving financial efficiency and accountability in the education sector. This brings us back to the central research question guiding this research report: what are the structural, administrative, and institutional factors driving the persistent gap between budgeted allocations and actual expenditure in India’s school education sector, and how does this underutilization shape educational outcomes? Literature Review Public expenditure on education leads to individual development and collective economic benefits. The National Education Policy of India 2020 outlines the vision of the new education system in India (Nandini, 2020). There were several policies implemented since Independence to transform the education sector. Central government donates to education in two ways, namely, centrally supported schemes and central sector schemes. The Kothari commission in 1966 recommended that public expenditure should reach the level of 6% of the Gross Domestic Product. Then the Saikia Committee of 1966 stressed the need for expenditure of 6% of the GNP. The Right to Education Act gave shelter to many deprived students to pursue education, and it mandates that schools reserve 25% of positions in their admissions (Khaitan, 2021). Educational spending increased from 2.8% of GDP in 2014-15 to 3.1% in 2019-20 (Ansari & Khan, 2018), who examined the level, trend, and growth of public expenditure on education in India. Financial constraints are widely cited as a primary reason for the failure to achieve key educational targets. Historically, State governments are the primary funders of public education. Systemic bureaucratic leakage and unspent funds often distort the perceived progress of educational funding (Comptroller and Auditor General of India, 2025; Foundation for Responsive Governance, 2026). Sector-wise distribution sheds light on the equitable allocation of resources across primary, secondary, and higher education (Kumar,
Authors: Vidhi Singh, Nimisha Droach ABSTRACT Background: AMR has long stopped being a background clinical concern. It is now a direct threat to healthcare systems and national economies, and India sits at a particularly difficult intersection of high antibiotic consumption, variable health infrastructure, and limited regulatory reach. Two policy instruments were introduced to address this — the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) and the Schedule H1 Regulation — though how well either has worked on the ground remains an open and contested question. Objective: This paper examines where NAP-AMR and Schedule H1 are falling short in practice and traces how those enforcement failures, surveillance gaps, poor inter-agency coordination, and limited stewardship capacity have produced measurable economic damage — for patients, hospitals, and India’s broader economy. Methods: A qualitative secondary data analysis was conducted using academic literature, surveillance reports, and policy documents from WHO, NCDC, ICMR, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Results: A consistent pattern emerged: surveillance systems are too heavily concentrated in urban tertiary hospitals, coordination between the Centre and the states is fractured, stewardship programmes are understaffed, and antibiotics continue to be sold without prescriptions despite Schedule H1. Treatment costs have risen as a result, hospital stays have lengthened, and families — particularly lower-income ones — are bearing financial burdens they cannot absorb. Conclusion: Tightening enforcement, digitising prescription records, expanding surveillance beyond tertiary facilities, and protecting households from catastrophic out-of-pocket costs are priorities India cannot continue to defer. INTRODUCTION AMR has moved well past the point of being a specialist clinical concern. The resistance crisis is reshaping healthcare economics, threatening basic medical procedures, and — in a country with India’s population size and disease burden — doing so at a scale that should alarm policymakers far beyond the health ministry. India’s position in this story is not incidental. It is one of the world’s largest consumers of antibiotics. Urbanisation has outpaced sanitation infrastructure in many parts of the country. The public health system, though large, is deeply uneven in capacity. The burden of infectious disease remains substantial. These factors don’t simply coexist; they interact and reinforce one another, accelerating resistance. Highly drug-resistant strains are now documented across Indian hospitals, and the practical consequences are real — routine surgeries carry added infection risk, neonatal care has become more clinically complex, and cancer treatment outcomes are increasingly compromised by resistant co-infections. Two major regulatory interventions were put in place to counter this. Schedule H1 came into force in 2014, covering 24 antibiotic classes including the most clinically critical ones. Dispensing requires a valid doctor’s prescription, and pharmacies must maintain three years of purchase and sales records. The purpose was to create accountability where there had been almost none. NAP-AMR provided the longer-horizon strategic architecture. Designed around One Health principles, it set goals for surveillance expansion, professional and public awareness campaigns, and antimicrobial stewardship programme development in hospitals. On paper, the two instruments work in tandem — Schedule H1 supplying the regulatory teeth, NAP-AMR supplying the strategic framework. The reality on the ground is considerably more complicated. The policies themselves are not the core problem. The gap lies in execution, and that gap is wide. Across Indian states, implementation has been uneven. Antibiotics listed under Schedule H1 are still regularly obtained without prescriptions in many communities. Stewardship programmes are largely absent from primary and secondary care settings. Surveillance data is dominated by large urban teaching hospitals and reflects little of what is happening in rural areas or primary care. This review examines those gaps from two angles. Policy Implementation Gaps and Regulation Challenges: Why does over-the-counter antibiotic dispensing persist even where legal restrictions apply? How do staffing shortages and missing diagnostic infrastructure outside major cities erode compliance? What does the published evidence say about the distance between what Schedule H1 requires and what pharmacies actually do? Economic Implications of India’s AMR Policies: Drug-resistant infections cost more to treat — more days in hospital, more expensive drugs, more tests. In India, where most healthcare spending is out-of-pocket, those extra costs don’t get absorbed by insurance; they fall directly on patients. This section maps that financial burden and examines what it means for lower-income households, hospitals managing constrained budgets, and India’s broader economic position. The aim is to connect weak implementation to real-world harm in a way that is useful for policymakers. Understanding precisely where and how enforcement breaks down is a prerequisite for designing fixes that actually hold. Theoretical Framework This study draws on Public Policy Implementation Theory as its interpretive lens. The theory’s core argument is straightforward but often overlooked in practice: whether a policy succeeds depends on how it is operationalised, not merely how it is designed. Institutional capacity, governance arrangements, resource availability, cross-sector coordination, enforcement quality, and the actual behaviour of stakeholders — these are the variables that determine what policies achieve. Applied to NAP-AMR and Schedule H1, this framework focuses attention on the structural and institutional factors that have limited their impact, and helps explain why the gap between policy intent and public health reality has persisted for over a decade. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Design The study uses a qualitative research design built on secondary data analysis, focused on India’s AMR policy framework with particular attention to NAP-AMR and Schedule H1. Governance, regulatory enforcement, antimicrobial stewardship, and surveillance served as the core analytical dimensions. Where quantitative data from national surveillance reports and published studies added clarity — on treatment costs, antibiotic consumption trends, or the measurable effects of specific interventions — that evidence was drawn into the analysis. Study Area Context The research centres on India’s healthcare system, examining how AMR policies have been implemented across hospitals, pharmacies, surveillance networks, and public health institutions. It also addresses the economic consequences of those policies, including rising healthcare expenditure and the financial pressures on patients and institutions. Participants and Sampling No human participants were involved. Sources were selected through purposive sampling based on their direct relevance to AMR, NAP-AMR, Schedule H1, stewardship, surveillance, and the