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Every item below follows the same eleven-part structure: the problem, why it matters, the proposal, how it would be implemented, which level of government is actually responsible, the cost approach, a timeline, a measurable indicator, how it would be publicly reported, the risks, and the mitigation.
Why so many costs say “to be determined”
We name who is actually responsible
Policy area
The same government service takes days for some citizens and months for others, depending on who they know, what they can pay, and where they live.
Measured by: Percentage of applications completed within the published time, reported by district.
Discrimination in access to housing, services and employment is widely reported but rarely results in a recorded, tracked complaint.
Measured by: Number of complaints intake, proportion reaching a recorded outcome, median days to outcome.
Policy area
Skilling programmes routinely train people for work that does not exist within travelling distance of where they live.
Measured by: Placement rate 6 months after training, by constituency and by course.
Delayed wage payment under existing employment programmes is a recurring and well-documented complaint.
Measured by: Median days from work completion to wage credit, by block.
Policy area
A significant proportion of children move through primary school without securing foundational reading and arithmetic, and the gap compounds every year afterwards.
Measured by: Proportion of children at grade-appropriate reading and arithmetic, by cluster.
Reported school infrastructure status and actual school infrastructure status frequently differ.
Measured by: Number of schools with a current verified record; number of deficiencies subsequently fixed and re-verified.
Nominally free education still carries uniform, transport, materials and private tuition costs that push families into debt.
Measured by: Median annual out-of-pocket schooling cost per child, by State and income band.
Policy area
A health centre that exists on paper but has no doctor present, or no medicines in stock, provides no healthcare.
Measured by: Reported availability rate per facility; number of stock-out reports resolved and re-verified.
A single hospital admission can move a household into long-term debt, and this remains one of the largest drivers of impoverishment in India.
Measured by: Reported proportion of prescriptions filled free at the facility; reported proportion of tests done in-facility.
Mental health support is scarce outside large cities, and stigma keeps demand invisible.
Measured by: Districts with a verified, current service directory; directory usage.
Policy area
Farmers frequently sell without reliable knowledge of prevailing prices, and buy inputs without a reliable local price reference.
Measured by: Constituencies with daily price coverage; farmer-reported usefulness.
Groundwater levels are declining in many agricultural districts, and current cropping and irrigation patterns accelerate the decline.
Measured by: Block-level groundwater trend; micro-irrigation coverage in stressed blocks.
Policy area
Compensation and insurance claims after crop loss are frequently delayed or reduced without a clear explanation to the farmer.
Measured by: Median days from claim filing to payment, by block; proportion of claims paid in full.
A substantial share of cultivation is done by tenant farmers who lack documentation, and who therefore cannot access credit, insurance or compensation.
Measured by: Tenant farmers assisted to obtain recognition; credit access before and after.
Policy area
Household connection figures count pipes, not water. A connection that supplies water twice a week is counted the same as one that runs daily.
Measured by: Reported hours of supply per week by locality; number of supply failures resolved and re-verified.
Water quality testing happens, but results rarely reach the households drinking the water in a form they can act on.
Measured by: Localities with a published, current water quality result.
Policy area
Households without secure tenure will not invest in their own homes, and can lose everything in a single eviction.
Measured by: Evictions documented; proportion where notice and resettlement standards were met.
Policy area
A city-average air quality figure conceals very large differences between neighbourhoods, and the worst-affected areas are usually the poorest.
Measured by: Neighbourhoods with continuous monitoring; divergence from the nearest official station.
Policy area
Public works are frequently announced and sanctioned, and then stall at a stage that is not visible in any published record.
Measured by: Works tracked; proportion completed by the stated date; median overrun.
Policy area
Bus and rail networks often stop short of the settlements that most need them, leaving expensive private options as the only route to work.
Measured by: Population within 1 km of a functioning public transport stop, by constituency.
Policy area
A citizen with several applications in progress must visit several portals, each with different logins and different status vocabulary.
Measured by: Departments using a common status vocabulary; citizen-reported ease of tracking.
Policy area
Parties demand transparency from government while disclosing very little about themselves.
Measured by: Days from transaction to publication; proportion of expenditure with an uploaded invoice.
Policy area
Anti-corruption effort is often aimed at large scandals, while the cost most citizens actually bear is small, routine and continuous.
Measured by: Offices with sufficient reports for publication; change in reported incidence over time.
Policy area
Young people choose courses on the basis of marketing, and discover the employment reality only afterwards.
Measured by: Courses with published outcome data; survey response rates.
Policy area
Street lighting, footpaths, functioning toilets and reliable transport determine women's access to work and education, and are usually treated as minor works.
Measured by: Audits completed; specific deficiencies fixed and re-verified.
Policy area
Elderly beneficiaries frequently have to travel and queue repeatedly for a pension that is already sanctioned.
Measured by: Median journeys per pension collection; delayed pensions resolved.
Policy area
Accessibility compliance is frequently recorded as complete where a ramp exists but is too steep, blocked, or leads to a locked door.
Measured by: Buildings audited; proportion judged usable; deficiencies fixed and re-verified.
Policy area
Small suppliers are routinely paid late by larger buyers and by government bodies, and cannot afford to litigate.
Measured by: Median reported days to payment by buyer category; cases resolved.
Policy area
Tender conditions on turnover and past experience routinely exclude new companies regardless of capability.
Measured by: Median bidders per tender; proportion of tenders with fewer than three bidders.
Policy area
Manufacturing investment decisions are shaped more by power reliability and land title clarity than by incentive schemes.
Measured by: Districts with published reliability data; industrial outage hours.
Policy area
Research funded from public money is frequently published behind paywalls that public institutions then pay again to access.
Measured by: Proportion of publicly funded outputs openly accessible.
Policy area
Government software is often built repeatedly at public expense and cannot be reused between States.
Measured by: Reuse of published components; independent security reports received and addressed.
Policy area
Automated systems are increasingly used in decisions about entitlements, and affected citizens often cannot find out why a decision was made.
Measured by: Proportion of AI recommendations with a recorded human review; appeals received and upheld.
Policy area
Debate about national security is frequently conducted through accusation rather than evidence, which serves neither security nor democracy.
Measured by: Not applicable. Compliance is assessed through content review, not measured numerically.
Policy area
Service failures are commonly blamed on staff, when the underlying cause is a large proportion of posts lying vacant.
Measured by: Departments with published vacancy data; vacancy rate trend.
Policy area
Citizens report being turned away without their complaint being formally registered, which leaves no record that anything happened.
Measured by: Cases supported; proportion subsequently registered.
Policy area
Statutory free legal aid exists, and most eligible citizens do not know about it or how to access it.
Measured by: Districts with a verified directory; referrals made.
Policy area
Municipal budgets are published in formats that make ward-level spending effectively unreadable.
Measured by: Wards with a readable published budget.
Policy area
Gram Panchayat decisions and expenditure are often not displayed in practice, despite requirements to do so.
Measured by: Panchayats with published current records.
Policy area
Consultation and consent requirements for projects affecting tribal communities are sometimes recorded as completed when the affected community reports otherwise.
Measured by: Communities supported; rights claims progressed.
Policy area
Heritage sites and local monuments deteriorate for want of routine maintenance while new tourism infrastructure is announced.
Measured by: Sites with a current condition record; deficiencies fixed and re-verified.
Policy area
Public sports facilities are frequently locked, encroached, or effectively reserved, and open playing space in cities keeps shrinking.
Measured by: Public playing space per 1,000 residents actually accessible, by ward.
Policy area
Official information is often unavailable in the languages spoken by the people it most affects.
Measured by: Languages supported; proportion of content translated per language.
Policy area
Skill programmes are reported by enrolment and certification, not by what trainees are doing a year later.
Measured by: Employment rate at 6 and 12 months, with response rate.
Policy area
Account opening figures are reported as financial inclusion, while a large share of accounts see little or no activity.
Measured by: Reported barriers by type and district.
Policy area
Official supply figures and household experience of outages frequently diverge, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas.
Measured by: Reported outage hours per week by locality, versus the official figure.
Policy area
Extreme heat is an occupational hazard for outdoor workers, and preparedness measures rarely reach informal workers.
Measured by: Sites audited; facilities provided before the season and re-verified.
Policy area
Households segregate waste that is then recombined during collection, which destroys both the outcome and the household's willingness to continue.
Measured by: Proportion of observed collections maintaining segregation, by ward.
Policy area
States publish similar information in incomparable formats, which prevents both learning and accountability.
Measured by: Indicators comparable across States.
Policy area
Development priorities are usually set upward from party structures rather than by the residents affected.
Measured by: Constituencies with a published priority list; proportion of party activity aligned to it.
Policy area
Coverage maps published by operators frequently overstate real usable connectivity, particularly indoors and in rural areas.
Measured by: Measured usable connectivity by locality versus claimed coverage.
Policy area
Internal party democracy is widely acknowledged as weak, and parties calling for electoral reform rarely apply it to themselves.
Measured by: Positions with published term history; organisational elections held with independent review.
Say so. Challenge Our Thinking is a permanent feature, and two of the challenges we have already received changed a party position.