India’s spending is larger than ever before — but it’s time the rupee learnt to recall what it achieved.

By Ravishankar Kalyanasundaram

“Unless outcomes precede outlays, every budget will read like a fresh manifesto. India needs not just a statement of accounts — but a statement of accountability.”

The New Confidence

Each month, the numbers arrive like a quiet headline of progress.
India’s GST collections keep setting new records — crossing ₹1.8 lakh crore (≈ US $22 billion) month after month, a figure unthinkable a decade ago. What began as a complex experiment in tax unification has become a mirror of national formality. From beauty parlours to wedding planners, influencers to contractors, thousands of small enterprises that once lived in the informal shadows are now part of the tax net.

For the first time in decades, the tax base feels democratic. It is not just corporations and professionals who contribute, but citizens from every walk of life — each invoice a vote of confidence in the system.

This growing discipline has allowed India to think big.

The Union Budget, now over ₹47 lakh crore (≈ US $570 billion), rivals the annual spending of mid-sized European economies. It stretches across every facet of public life — from subsidised grains to expressways, from solar parks to digital highways. Few developing nations attempt welfare and infrastructure on this scale.

The last decade has seen the state reach deeper than ever before. Tap water reaches rural homes through Jal Jeevan Mission. Toilets through Swachh Bharat. Electricity through Saubhagya. Housing through PM Awas Yojana. Food security through free rations to nearly 800 million citizens. Each scheme touches daily life; each promises inclusion.

The state has truly arrived.

But with this expansion comes a quieter question — one that echoes not in Parliament or press briefings, but in the citizen’s mind:

“What did yesterday’s rupee deliver?”

The Missing Memory

Budgets have become grand spectacles of ambition. But when the applause fades, and the pages turn, what remains?

India’s fiscal machinery tells us what it plans to spend — not what it has achieved. The Economic Survey is dense with analysis; the Budget speech rich with intention. Yet there is no chapter that measures the aftermath. The ledger records allocations, not outcomes.

Consider three flagship examples that once promised transformation.

The Mega Food Park Scheme, launched to link farmers with markets and reduce wastage, envisioned tens of thousands of rural jobs and modern agro-hubs across the country. A decade later, only about half the sanctioned parks are fully operational. Many are half-empty, struggling with connectivity, utilities, or market access. The capital is parked, but not productive.

The Smart Cities Mission sought to reimagine 100 Indian cities through technology and design. But many projects remain cosmetic — LED lights and command centres in place of liveable public spaces and efficient transport. The idea was futuristic; the execution, fragmented.

The Sagarmala Programme, meant to modernise India’s ports and logistics corridors, runs on mixed results. Some ports improved throughput, others remain bottlenecked. Connectivity projects lag, and inland waterways, once the programme’s pride, are still waiting for cargo.

These are not failures of imagination, but of follow-up.

A system that celebrates outlays but ignores outcomes becomes a machine that remembers nothing. It launches missions, announces targets, allocates funds — and moves on to the next headline.

The result is a budget without memory.

The Gap in Institutional Practice

It is not as if India lacks review mechanisms. The Outcome Budget exists in theory. Dashboards exist in fragments. The CAG audits expenditure years later. The NITI Aayog prepares frameworks and SDG matrices. But the links between these are broken — too technical for the citizen, too scattered for the policymaker, too delayed to correct course.

There is no real-time conscience in the system.

By the time an audit is written, ministers have changed, and departments have moved on. Parliamentary committees, where they exist, rarely revisit outcomes. And the opposition, instead of using data to critique intelligently, often resorts to slogans that drown nuance.

A scheme may begin as an idea of inclusion and end as an accounting entry.

When a government announces a new highway or housing programme, the average citizen no longer asks “how much” — they ask, “will it finish?” This quiet scepticism is the price we pay for budgets that have forgotten their past.

A Budget Prequel: What India Needs

What India now needs is not another outlay, but a prelude — a Budget Prequel.

Before every Budget, the Finance Minister should present a National Outcome Review: a public ledger of results achieved, shortfalls identified, and corrective actions planned.

It should tell citizens, in clear language:

• Where the money went
• What it achieved
• What underperformed — and why
• What will be recalibrated next year

This “Chapter Zero” would precede the Budget speech — a mirror before the manifesto.

It is not an accounting reform; it is a democratic one.

Because budgets are not just documents of finance — they are declarations of trust.

Discipline Across Institutions

This culture of accountability cannot be built by the Ministry of Finance alone; it must travel across the spine of governance. The NITI Aayog must act as the country’s compass — aligning national and state programmes with measurable goals, not slogans. The Reserve Bank of India, with its quiet authority, should read what every outlay means for the nation’s credit, savings, and inflation. The line ministries, from health to highways, need to treat outcomes as part of their budget — not as an afterthought. The Comptroller and Auditor General must step beyond audit rooms, verifying not only whether the money was spent, but whether it made a difference. And above all, the Finance Ministry must bring these voices together, presenting not just a statement of expenditure but a statement of experience — the country’s annual report card in public view.

When a nation spends nearly ₹47 lakh crore (≈ US $570 billion) a year — a sum larger than the GDPs of Finland, Portugal, and Greece combined — it cannot afford to guess what it achieves. Every rupee must be remembered.

Connecting with Citizens — Not Just Credit Ratings

This proposal is not anti-government. It is pro-governance.
It does not weaken ambition; it strengthens credibility.

Every government seeks confidence — from investors, rating agencies, and global partners. But the truest confidence lies with citizens who can see what their taxes built.

Imagine a citizen-friendly outcome dashboard — one where a farmer in Bihar can track how much his district gained from PM-KISAN, or a student in Madurai can see how many new classrooms were actually built under Samagra Shiksha. Such visibility would make governance personal — and participation patriotic.

A budget that remembers is a nation that learns.

Final Word

India does not need another manifesto disguised as a budget.
It needs a memory — of what it promised, what it delivered, and what it must correct.

If we begin to measure before we announce, review before we allocate, and report before we forget, the Union Budget could become more than a fiscal ritual. It could become a conversation of accountability.

A conversation between government and governed.

Between intention and integrity.

Because a nation that remembers what it spent yesterday will know what it must build tomorrow.