Welcome to billboard governance.

It involves highly visible headline grabbing governance initiatives that are propped up long enough to regale commoners’ memory but get defunded once the white heat dies.

In our latest investigation into Narendra Modi government’s policy initiatives, we found that the majority of Modi’s star schemes, which did their duty of creating a sense of euphoria, gasp for funds.

The Collective reviewed allocations to 906 central sector schemes that the Union government listed in its budgets over five years from FY 2019-2020 to FY 2023-24 to find out how much did the Modi government actually spend on them. We found that the government underfunded 651 or 72% of the 906 schemes.

In 20% of the total schemes reviewed, or one in every five, the government spent less than half of what it had promised in the budget, or much lower.

Of all the budget cuts, the harshest cut was reserved for welfare schemes. At least 75% of the welfare schemes got less money than what the government had promised.

Take the example of Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Maan Dhan, one of the pension schemes announced with fanfare in 2019. While the government promised in the budget to spend Rs 750 crore in the first year, it actually spent Rs 155 crore.

Over the next three years, spending projections plummeted to inconsequential sums. In the most recent fiscal period, a trifling Rs 3 crore was allotted, of which a mere Rs 10 lakh was actually spent for the programme. What a fall – from Rs 750 crore to Rs 3 crore.

The government didn’t even particularly care whether they had sought votes in the names of the schemes that they decided to squeeze dry.

But how does the government still manage to propagate the perception of a government that is constantly innovating, crafting new policies and doing more?

One trick up the government’s sleeve – practised across five years – is to rebrand, rename, repackage and rebuild existing schemes, some of them decades-old, with some tweaks.

The investigation by Navya Asopa and Shreegireesh Jalihal of The Reporters’ Collective also look closely at five central schemes that are funded entirely by the Union government and find out how they fared and whether the government spent as much as it said it would.

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