Paper Series

Policy Paper: Programmable fiscal instruments for welfare delivery: The case for Annapurna coin and a welfare digital public infrastructure in India

January 27, 2026

Vidhu Shekhar

Abstract

India’s welfare architecture has been significantly reshaped over the last decade through digitisation, Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), and national digital rails such as Aadhaar and the Public Financial Management System (PFMS). These reforms have improved transfer-stage efficiency and reduced diversion at disbursement. However, persistent challenges remain in welfare schemes where policy objectives are outcome-specific, particularly in food security and nutrition. Cash transfers are fully fungible and sensitive to price variation, while in-kind delivery remains administratively rigid and vulnerable to leakage, creating a structural trade-off between efficiency and outcome assurance.

This paper introduces programmable fiscal instruments as a distinct class of budget-issued welfare instruments designed to address this gap. Unlike cash transfers, vouchers, or digital currency, programmable fiscal instruments embed purpose, usage constraints, and settlement rules directly within the instrument, enabling outcomespecific welfare delivery without monetary or central-bank balance-sheet implications. The paper situates this concept within a Welfare Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) framework and argues that instrument design constitutes a missing architectural layer in contemporary welfare systems.

The paper examines Annapurna Coin and Milk Coin as concrete instantiations of this framework. Annapurna Coin illustrates a population-scale instrument for staple food security, while Milk Coin demonstrates targeted nutrition support for specific demographic groups. Through architectural, legal, and economic analysis, the paper shows how programmable fiscal instruments preserve beneficiary choice while enforcing purpose constraints, support multi-vendor participation, and generate policy-relevant utilisation data. The paper reframes welfare reform as a problem of fiscal instrument design rather than transfer modality.

Keywords: Programmable fiscal instruments; welfare delivery; outcome-specific subsidies; Welfare DPI; Annapurna Coin; India Stack; PFMS; ONOR; digital public infrastructure.

Suggested citation:

Shekhar, V. (2026). Programmable Fiscal Instruments for Welfare Delivery: The Case for Annapurna Coin and a Welfare Digital Public Infrastructure in India. SPJIMR Mumbai. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18390483

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