In a recent article, I argued how increasing rural spending on schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MGNREGA), skill development (STRIVE, SANKALP) and agricultural development (Fasal Bima Yojana, e-NAM) has not significantly impacted outcomes. This makes it pertinent for the government and policymakers to consider evidence from outcome assessments before appropriating massive sums of taxpayer’s money. As an illustrative example, we may take the case of public healthcare in rural India. While most policy discourse tends to argue for an increase in healthcare spending to improve overall services, little attention is paid to the quality of healthcare facilities. Data on human resources, medical records and patient charts are scarce, making the problem all the more difficult to solve.

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