Evaluating and enhancing India’s social protection and G2P ecosystem, India

• Jul 29, 2025
• 1 min

India has made significant progress in digitizing its social protection programs to reduce leakages, improve governance, and ensure direct delivery of benefits to citizens. These programs span multiple sectors, which include food, fuel, fertilizer, health, rural livelihoods, social assistance, social insurance, and education. Despite its progress, many schemes required further reforms to improve efficiency, ensure last-mile delivery, and shift from in-kind to cash-based transfers where appropriate.

MSC collaborated with central and state governments, as well as key partners, to assess and enhance the performance of these programs. We conducted Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) readiness assessments to evaluate infrastructure and institutional preparedness across different regions. Our teams also offered real-time, independent monitoring and evaluation support during pilot implementations. This included detailed ground-level tracking of rollout processes, digital payments infrastructure, and beneficiary onboarding to ensure data-driven course corrections during implementation. MSC’s ongoing support enabled governments to fine-tune program delivery, strengthen accountability, and improve beneficiary experiences. Our work contributed to more efficient, transparent, and scalable G2P delivery mechanisms across India. Overall, these initiatives have directly impacted more than 875 million people, helping make social protection systems more inclusive and responsive.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the project to MSC.