Rural connectivity plays a pivotal role in driving socio-economic transformation in agrarian economies like India, where access to markets, essential services, and institutional infrastructure remains limited in many regions. In this context, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), launched in 2000, stands as a flagship rural road development programme aimed at providing all-weather road connectivity to unconnected habitations. Over the years, PMGSY has evolved through multiple phases, expanding its scope from basic connectivity to the consolidation and integration of rural roads with larger economic and social frameworks.
Recognising the need for a comprehensive and updated evaluation of the programme’s long-term impact, the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA), Ministry of Rural Development, has entrusted this study to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in achieving its core aim of providing all-weather road connectivity to unconnected rural habitations. The study aims to assess the program’s contribution to rural economic development, poverty alleviation, and livelihood enhancement—particularly in the agriculture sector—through improved access to markets, education, healthcare, and other essential services. It also seeks to identify notable changes in rural livelihoods, examine improvements in transportation efficiency, assess reductions in urban migration, and analyze the scheme’s alignment with Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 9). Additionally, the study will evaluate the quality and sustainability of PMGSY roads in comparison to those constructed under other schemes.
While past studies have highlighted several positive outcomes of PMGSY—such as improved market access, adoption of modern agricultural practices, better health and education access, and shifts in migration patterns—the findings have often been mixed and region-specific. Furthermore, as rural India continues to face emerging challenges such as increasing vehicular traffic, climate change, and socio-economic shifts, an updated and comprehensive evaluation becomes essential. This study, therefore, seeks to generate robust, evidence-based insights into the tangible and intangible outcomes of PMGSY. These insights will not only inform future policy directions but also contribute to enhancing the effectiveness, resilience, and sustainability of rural infrastructure development across India.
Investment in renewable energy is essential. While India has made significant strides in renewable energy development, the need for further investment remains substantial. Addressing financial and technological barriers in renewable energy development is essential to reducing carbon emissions and achieving global climate targets. Government financing plays a vital role in the development of renewable energy by providing financial support, encouraging private sector investment, supporting research and development, facilitating infrastructure development, and enhancing public awareness and education. Governments offer grants, subsidies, loans, and tax incentives to make renewable energy projects more viable. The project is assessing the institutional fund flow towards renewable energy sector, especially focusing on government sector fund, re-examining the centre-state resource allocation. Additionally, the study seeks to identify challenges in the renewable energy sector through a stakeholder survey, and suggest policy measures to facilitate the development of renewable energy sector.
Like many emerging economies, India faces two simultaneous fundamental economic challenges– increasing prosperity, and reducing emissions. At present, however, there is little understanding of how to combine a low-carbon energy transition in sectors like electricity or transportation with an ambitious, energy-driven development agenda.
In this project, NCAER will modify its established computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to assess how specific decarbonization strategies in transportation and electricity could best support development goals, and, conversely, how development strategies might drive decarbonization in electricity and transportation.
Specifically, NCAER will modify their established, national CGE model to represent detailed regional energy systems and then run this modified version of the model to explore the implications of multiple electricity and transportation transition strategies. NCAER will compare their results with those of detailed energy system models and, as necessary, make improvements to capture, for example, the rapid evolution of energy technologies that might be spurred by these detailed sectoral policies.
This project will be conducted as part of the Green Macroeconomic Modeling Initiative (GMMI) facilitated by the Bezos Earth Fund – the project team will participate in GMMI diagnostic activities and project meetings and will publish their research results as part of a GMMI special journal issue.
The focus on states being the drivers for the next stage of reforms has been echoed over the last decade. States now have a proactive role to play and take responsibility in the next set of changes in areas of relevant domains given that they are largely under their jurisdictional purview. Additionally, state finances are crucial for India’s growth story as state governments are responsible for a considerable share of government spending and borrowing. NCAER will prepare state-level decks/reports providing a summary of the macro and fiscal landscape of each state and will have sections on – demography; economic growth; socio-economic indicators; public finances; state fiscal rules; and some supplementary information. The underlying data will be updated annually, and users will have the flexibility to download customisable graphs and charts that give data on specific variables across states.
The National Land Records Modernisation Programme (NLRMP) was launched in 2008 as a centrally sponsored scheme, relaunched as the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme in 2016 with 100% centrally funded scheme. The scheme, now extended till 2025-26, aims to develop a modern, comprehensive and transparent land record management system with the integration of all relevant data bases. Since huge amount have been invested, it become important to anlayse how well the digitized land records reflect the ground realities and what kind of challenges land owners are facing in accessing the digitised copies of their land records. In this context, NCAER has been entrusted this study, with support from DoLR, Ministry of Rural Development, GOI.
The scope of the study includes: a) identifying the gaps in terms of progress of digitization of textual/ spatial records, registration process and integration between these components and gaps in systems talking to each other; identifying the extent to which RORs and Maps are being updated; identifying the status of mutation / subdivisions; and understanding the status of process of rectification in digitized records. The study includes survey of land owners in 4 States/UTs’ in India i.e. Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. Additionally, responses were taken from patwaris and the revenue departments officials of the respective States/ UTs. The findings are expected to help in nuancing the policies and implementation processes that could help in addressing the challenges and gaps towards achieving the desired outcomes of the programme by 2025-26.
