Welcome to the fourth edition of our quarterly newsletter, Budget Track. It brings to you CBGA’s latest reports, policy briefs, fact sheets, media pieces, and snippets from some of our ongoing work. 


Recent months have witnessed a lot of discussion on budgetary spending by State Governments as well as the Union Government on certain kinds of welfare measures, and the implications of some of those on the fiscal health of the States. Another issue, which needs to be deliberated a lot more in this context, is the gradual de-prioritisation of long-term public expenditure commitment for the provisioning of crucial services like, education, health, and nutrition, and sector-wide policy support (as opposed to ‘plug-ins’) for agriculture, climate actions, and gender justice, among others. 

This edition of Budget Track presents our newly released paper under a global research partnership initiative, which examines early repercussions of the shift towards digitalisation in access to education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also presents fact sheets on policy and budgetary support for the agriculture sector in select States. The interactive data visualisations in this newsletter unpack some of the broad trends in the State Budgets for 2022-23. 

We really appreciate your attention, and look forward to getting your feedback and suggestions on the work showcased here.

Subrat Das
Executive Director, CBGA

INTERFACE

Our podcasts, videos and events 

Webinar on 'Gender Responsiveness of Policy Responses to COVID across Select Countries'

This Webinar conducted jointly by CBGA and the Feminist Policy Collective (FPC) delved into the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women and persons of marginalised gender and sexual identities, and the policy responses witnessed so far across select countries. It brought together voices from different contexts and regions (in the Global South) to discuss the gender responsiveness of the policy responses to the pandemic. 

Economic Recovery from the Pandemic: Looking at the Private Corporate and the Unorganised Sector

In this fourth interview in the series, Dialogues on Global Financial Transparency, noted economist Prof. Arun Kumar addresses the question, ‘what have we learnt about the private corporate sector's role in economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries like India?’. The conversation also dwells on the implications for post-pandemic policies in other countries.

Financial Secrecy Index 2022

In the fifth episode of the online interview series, Dialogues on Global Financial Transparency, we speak to Liz Nelson, Director, Tax Justice Network (TJN) on the Financial Secrecy Index 2022. The conversation delves into its findings, impact, and recommendations.

INTERACTIVE VISUALISATIONS

Unpacking State Budgets - Updated for FY 2022-23

View All

Delve into State Budgets in India through these simple visualisations; they compare some of the broad trends across State Budgets in the most recent years.
How India Lives
How India Lives
Data Visualisations | CBGA India
Data Visualisations | CBGA India

IN-FOCUS

Policy briefs, papers and other outputs from our research

'Digitalisation of secondary school education in Delhi during the COVID-19 pandemic: How does gender factor in?'

This study presents an in-depth qualitative analysis of public provisioning of secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing mainly on the use of digital technology in this sphere. It looks at whether this shift towards digitalisation of public sector provisioning of education was experienced differentially based on gender, and the opportunities and the barriers that came up in this process.

Budgetary Support towards Agriculture: Factsheets on Rajasthan and Maharashtra

These fact sheets unpack the trends and patterns in budgetary support for agriculture and allied sectors over the last decade. Read the analysis on Rajasthan and Maharashtra. 

A Training Resource on the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS)

This training module has been developed in collaboration with Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), to serve as a reference document for providing budget sensitisation training on Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS).

A Training Resource on the Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes

This training module has been developed in collaboration with National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) as a reference document for providing budget sensitisation training on the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Castes (PMS-SC). 

Agriculture in Rajasthan: An Overview of Policies and Budgetary Support

This policy brief flags some of the key challenges in agriculture sector in Rajasthan and comments on the policy directions in the State over the last decade. It highlights the need for stronger policy support towards making Rajasthan’s agriculture more resilient to the adverse impacts of climate change and market volatility.

Opinions and Blogs

In the last couple of months, our team members have written opinion pieces on a number of themes related to fiscal governance. These include Tax incentives for charitable institutions, Education for Scheduled Castes, the Open Budget Survey 2021 and Contract farming in Punjab. You can read the opinion pieces here.

IN-PROGRESS

Snippets from some of our ongoing work on policies and fiscal governance

Public Provisioning for Institutional Care
and Family Based Care for Children 
in India 

A research study being conducted by CBGA, in collaboration with CRS India and UNICEF India, is examining the status of public sector provisioning for family-based child care. It is focusing on the policy measures of the Union Government, and those in the States of Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. 

Assessing the Implications for Public
Resources for Children in the Post-COVID Scenario 

COVID-19 has adversely impacted children’s health, nutrition, education and protection, which necessitates examining the prioritisation of public resources for children in the most recent Budgets. Under a study being conducted in this context, a Discussion Paper will be brought out to present the analysis of Union Budget and Budgets of select States, for pre-pandemic and pandemic years. Do look out for the Paper in the next edition of our newsletter.

INFLUENCE

Efforts by our partner organisations in India and other countries that have left a lasting impression

Accelerating the Growth of Rainfed Agriculture

The RRA Network (Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network) has published a Comprehensive Policy document on revitalising Rainfed Agriculture based on a 3E framework. The 3E framework with its focus on Ecology, Economy and Equity is designed to simultaneously combat climate change, secure livelihoods, and improve nutrition. The National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) has incorporated critical inputs from this document, and published a draft policy document on rainfed agriculture, which is available on their website. 

Leaving No One Behind in Digital Delivery of Public Services

Southern Voice has collaborated with IEP (Peru), STIPRO (Tanzania) and CBGA (India) to analyse the challenges in different countries across the three southern regions in the transition towards digital delivery of public services. The studies by the partnering organisations have looked at the early repercussions of this emerging trend on inclusive access to public services, with a special focus on women. The papers brought out present new evidence on digital delivery of secondary and tertiary levels of education, and online business registration. 


Using PIL for Advancing Tax Justice

A  public Interest litigation strategy  towards advancing tax justice has been initiated by Tax Justice Network - Africa (TJNA). Its inaugural retreat, organised recently, served as a platform for experience sharing between CSO’s and legal practitioners drawn from across Africa to chart the way forward on matters of public interest litigation.