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Expenditure Governance and Information Technology: Assessing India’s Situation and Potential by Nirvikar Singh
Author(s):Jay Chaudhuri
Membership:From Outlays to Outcomes

 

Given the acknowledged poor quality and effectiveness of much government expenditure in India, it is important to analyze ways of improving effectiveness through better monitoring of expenditures and outcomes. Improvements in outcomes include better targeting of redistributive measures and more efficient spending on productive projects. Improvements in information and monitoring are an essential component of better accountability, which in turn can provide incentives for better expenditure quality. Information technology provides an important potential tool for achieving these goals. This paper examines the problems of expenditure quality in India, discusses a conceptual framework for improvements in accountability, and analyzes the role of information technology, drawing on international experiences where possible to derive guidance for future expenditure governance IT applications in India. IT has a dual role to play in increasing expenditure efficiency and effectiveness. First, its use can improve internal government processes. Second, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness can be enhanced by using IT to alter the citizen-government interface. The two roles are connected, and are best integrated for benefits to be realized. 

 

Fieldwork guiding tools
Author(s):Sreyamsa Bairiganjan
Membership:

This is a compilation of all tools used for the CDF-WRI clean energy research work. The tools were modified according to the situation in the field. This document tries to capture all required and relevnt information through tools such as FGDs, structured and semi-structured interviews. 

Fire Alarms in Action: Making Sense of User Feedback on City Services - Jessica Wallack
Author(s):Jay Chaudhuri
Membership:From Outlays to Outcomes

 

Fire alarms,” or institutional mechanisms to enable citizens to bring bureaucratic failings to their managers’ attention, have long been recognized as a flexible, low-cost alternative to direct monitoring of bureaucracies and bureaucrats. Less attention has been focused on exactly how to design fire alarms that are responsive to citizen concerns, representative of priorities, and not too sensitive to false alarms. This paper addresses that gap, using a unique dataset of registered public grievances registered to assess the effectiveness of a prominent e-governance public grievance management module being used in several hundred cities across India in collecting and conveying an accurate profile of citizen concerns to city policymakers.

Fire Alarms in Action: Making Sense of User Feedback on City Services - Jessica Wallack
Author(s):Jay Chaudhuri
Membership:From Outlays to Outcomes

“Fire alarms,” or institutional mechanisms to enable citizens to bring bureaucratic failings to their managers’ attention, have long been recognized as a flexible, low-cost alternative to direct monitoring of bureaucracies and bureaucrats. Less attention has been focused on exactly how to design fire alarms that are responsive to citizen concerns, representative of priorities, and not too sensitive to false alarms. This paper addresses that gap, using a unique dataset of registered public grievances registered to assess the effectiveness of a prominent e-governance public grievance management module being used in several hundred cities across India in collecting and conveying an accurate profile of citizen concerns to city policymakers. 

Going to the Operating Room Without A Diagnostic: Reform of Centrally Sponsored Schemes - Jay Chaudhuri
Author(s):Jay Chaudhuri
Membership:From Outlays to Outcomes

The institutional design of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) creates a significant information gap that impedes government and civil societies’ ability to monitor progress as well as identify necessary areas for improvement. Anecdotal evidence suggests that critical institutional processes that affect schemes outputs and influence outcomes are not being executed as intended, but information to systematically identify these failures and pinpoint processes that are in need of improvement does not exist. This paper highlights this critical missing link for reform and draws on micro-founded logic and international experience to suggest ways that administrative data (for which IT can be a tool) can contribute to enabling process evaluation (distinct from ongoing program or impact evaluation) that can highlight where execution is failing and more importantly – how it is failing.

Going to the Operating Room Without A Diagnostic: Reform of Centrally Sponsored Schemes - Jay Chaudhuri
Author(s):Jay Chaudhuri
Membership:From Outlays to Outcomes

 

The institutional design of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) creates a significant information gap that impedes government and civil societies’ ability to monitor progress as well as identify necessary areas for improvement. Anecdotal evidence suggests that critical institutional processes that affect schemes outputs and influence outcomes are not being executed as intended, but information to systematically identify these failures and pinpoint processes that are in need of improvement does not exist. This paper highlights this critical missing link for reform and draws on micro-founded logic and international experience to suggest ways that administrative data (for which IT can be a tool) can contribute to enabling process evaluation (distinct from ongoing program or impact evaluation) that can highlight where execution is failing and more importantly – how it is failing.

Impact Evaluation and Public Sector Programs in India: What Can We Do Right Now
Author(s):Jay ChaudhuriElizabeth Mathew
Membership:

This paper explores the existing gaps in the way centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) are evaluated for their impact in the Indian public sector. The authors identify an ideal type model for a public sector impact evaluation mechanism that would be both effective and feasible to implement.