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Category: Public Policies
Public Policies
Aamani Bhardwaj

Analyzing Budget-to-Expenditure Gaps in India’s School Education Sector

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,

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August 7, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
VIDHI SINGH

Structural Inefficiencies and Economic Consequences: Evaluating the Implementation Gap in India’s AMR Policy Frameworks (NAP-AMR and Schedule H1)

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

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July 26, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
Shivalaya Sharma

Effectiveness of Ayushman Bharat in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in India: A Policy Analysis

This research evaluates the progress of India’s national health program toward achieving universal health coverage by focusing on the core aspects of accessibility, affordability, and quality
. The study employs a policy analysis approach to examine the primary care network and the insurance scheme intended for hospital-based treatments
. While the findings indicate that the program has successfully expanded formal healthcare access and reduced financial risks for many households, the authors highlight persistent challenges such as regional disparities and the exclusion of outpatient care from the insurance benefit
. To fulfill the goal of equitable healthcare, the paper recommends increasing public investment, integrating preventive services, and strengthening regulatory oversight of the healthcare sector.

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July 26, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
Anisha Rawat

Digital Inclusion or Digital Exclusion? Examining the Challenges of India’s JAM Trinity in Welfare Delivery

This study critically examines the role of the JAM Trinity in India’s digital welfare system. While the initiative has improved financial inclusion and transparency through Direct Benefit Transfers, it also highlights challenges such as digital exclusion, biometric authentication failures, and inadequate digital infrastructure. The paper emphasizes the need for more inclusive, accessible, and accountable digital governance.

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July 26, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
Nimish Saket

Governing a Democracy Without Civic Reciprocity: India’s Persistent Behavioural Paradox

The core arguments and findings of the study:

The Behavioral Paradox: Developing nations like India frequently secure immediate momentum during top-down, state-led mobilization campaigns, yet they consistently suffer from steep post-intervention regression and struggle with long-term behavioral institutionalization.

The Civic Reciprocity Framework: Rather than blaming apathetic cultural traits, the study formalizes a framework that treats civic discipline as a variable directly driven by the structural integrity of a vertical “state-citizen psychological contract”.

Colonial Path Dependency: Historical process tracing reveals that colonial administration originally alienated the citizenry by legalistically redefining shared community assets into an abstract category of “government property”.

The Institutional Design Deficit: Cross-national benchmarking against Rwanda’s Umuganda model highlights a severe –40 point reciprocity gap, proving that long-term compliance failures stem from an institutional design deficit rather than a lack of cultural civic capacity.

Proposed Policy Architecture: Sustainable compliance demands a stratified subnational architecture focused on predictable physical choice configurations and localized social co-production, rather than relying on temporary, high-profile enforcement drives.

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July 26, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
Darpan Kumari

The Paradox of Convenience: Examining the Tradeoff Between Consumer Leisure and Gig Worker Precarity in the Platform Economy

This review examines how platform economies like Uber and Deliveroo generate consumer convenience by reproducing labor precarity among gig workers. Introducing ‘platform-living’ as a new analytical concept, it argues that closing the gap between consumer leisure and worker insecurity requires employment reclassification, algorithmic transparency, and portable social welfare benefits.

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July 26, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
Ashish Kumar Swain

THE LABOUR PARADOX: ASSESSING RURAL GENDERED INFRASTRUCTURE AND ITS TIME-USE

This study interrogates the paradox of rural infrastructure and women’s labour in India, showing that time-saving schemes do not automatically translate into economic participation. Through a mixed-methods, intersectional lens, it argues that patriarchal norms and care burdens often absorb freed time, producing intensification rather than empowerment.

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June 16, 2026 No Comments
Public Policies
Ritika Singh Thakur

Beyond the 2% Rule: Reimagining CSR for Biodiversity and Sustainability in India

India’s mandatory CSR regime recognises biodiversity conservation but drives symbolic, expenditure-driven compliance over genuine ecological outcomes. Governance gaps between CSR law and the Biological Diversity Act weaken accountability. This study argues for outcome-based metrics, biodiversity risk integration, and alignment with global frameworks like TNFD and CSRD to transform CSR from philanthropy into ecological responsibility.

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May 24, 2026 No Comments