FAST READ
Cash transfers can provide households with flexible purchasing power. Women-focused transfers can increase individual financial agency. UPSC focus: governance / social justice, institutional design and long-term policy implications.
WHY IN NEWS
The expansion of recurring cash-transfer schemes has sharpened debate over welfare outcomes, fiscal trade-offs and the quality of public evidence used to evaluate such programmes.
TOP DATA & FACTS
- Cash transfers can provide households with flexible purchasing power.
- Women-focused transfers can increase individual financial agency.
- Recurring transfers create continuing fiscal commitments.
- Evaluation should distinguish sanctioned beneficiaries from actual receipt.
- Outcome indicators can include nutrition, health, debt, schooling and labour participation.
- Administrative data alone cannot establish causal impact.
- Independent evaluations can identify unintended effects and exclusion errors.
- Public disclosure should protect personal data while enabling programme scrutiny.
- Cash support and public services are not necessarily substitutes.
- Fiscal analysis should include opportunity costs relative to health, education and infrastructure.
- Clear objectives make welfare programmes easier to evaluate.
- Evidence-based review can improve design without treating welfare itself as illegitimate.
PRELIMS
- Cash transfers can provide households with flexible purchasing power.
- Women-focused transfers can increase individual financial agency.
- Recurring transfers create continuing fiscal commitments.
- Evaluation should distinguish sanctioned beneficiaries from actual receipt.
- Outcome indicators can include nutrition, health, debt, schooling and labour participation.
- Administrative data alone cannot establish causal impact.
- Independent evaluations can identify unintended effects and exclusion errors.
- Public disclosure should protect personal data while enabling programme scrutiny.
QUICK REVISION
- Authority/theme: Governance / Social Justice.
- Anchor fact: Cash transfers can provide households with flexible purchasing power.
- Second recall: Women-focused transfers can increase individual financial agency.
PROBABLE OBJECTIVE QUESTION
With reference to Cash-Transfer Politics, consider the following statements: