This blog discusses India’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic through PMGKY—a major social protection package. It dives into the program’s implementation in India, analyzes its performance, enlists the challenges, and offers lessons from India’s experience in implementing social security programs during such crises.

India’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic included several measures, including a nationwide lockdown, an information campaign, and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY)—a major social protection package. This paper explores the implementation of PMGKY based on a household survey conducted 4-6 weeks after its launch. The study also highlights the critical need to increase the spread of smartphones across the population.

The state of Andhra Pradesh is recognized as a leader in using technology to improve the delivery of public services, programs and subsidies. Many of its innovations were piloted in Krishna District, which has been visited by development agencies and delegations from many countries.

Earlier this year we undertook a field study of Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh (AP), together with collaborators from Centre for Global Development, to understand the experience and perceptions around digital governance reforms.

The latest paper from Centre for Global Development on digital governance in developing countries provides a picture of the perceived impact of digitization reforms in Rajasthan.