Public administration in India has been plagued by a lack of focus on results and outcomes that matter most to citizens. Annual planning and monitoring revolves largely around the allocation of the government’s budget to its departments and programmes and periodically checking if the money is being spent and activities completed.

Did they do it? is the operative question to judge performance — did they build enough toilets , did they open schools and hospitals? Such an approach, however, completely misses the difference between doing the job, and doing the job efficiently and effectively.

An outcomes-based approach shifts the perspective to the short and long-term outcomes of governance. So what? is the operative question here — so what if toilets were built, are they clean and functional and did open defecation reduce?

At FLAIR we are working on the concept – Planning for Billions that analyses the plan and budget of - (a) the Union of India,(b) the States, and (c) the Panchayats and Municipal Corporations, and the output and outcome achieved with the money spent.