Access, data-driven models, financial discipline key to governance: CAG

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, K Sanjay Murthy, has highlighted the importance of expanding access, promoting data-driven governance and strengthening institutional maturity in financial management, calling them the three core pillars that will shape the future of governance.

He said this while delivering the ‘Viksit Bharat’ address to trainee officers of the 100th Common Foundation Course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) on Friday evening.

Addressing 660 trainee officers, Murthy said young civil servants would play a crucial role in improving public administration across sectors.

He illustrated the role of each of the above-mentioned aspects using examples from the education sector.

Talking about the need to expand access, he highlighted the government’s national-level reform to provide free access to premium academic journals to institutions across India.

Earlier, departments negotiated separately under the ‘One Nation One Subscription’ model, leading to high costs and limited reach. With a centralised negotiation led by the Ministry of Education, more than 13,000 journals are now available to over 5,000 institutions, generating nearly one crore downloads every month as compared to around one crore annual downloads earlier, he stated.

Calling the reform a model of collaborative procurement, he urged young officers to adopt similar approaches in their administrative roles.

Highlighting data-driven governance, Murthy said the increasing participation of Indian institutions in global rankings such as QS and Times Higher Education demonstrates how data can help diagnose institutional gaps. Initially hesitant to engage, several universities were able to improve research output, employer outreach, gender representation and SDG-linked performance once they began systematically collecting and analysing data, he noted.

Such datasets, whether compiled by ministries, national bodies or global evaluators, are essential tools for identifying weaknesses, designing interventions and monitoring outcomes, he said.

Emphasising the third pillar, Murthy underscored the need for robust institutional financial systems to ensure investment-readiness.

Despite the availability of mechanisms such as viability-gap funding, many institutions fail to take advantage due to weak accounting practices, outdated financial systems and poorly maintained asset registers. Strengthening transparency and financial discipline, he said, is critical for sectors like education and health, which require significant capital investment.

He noted that national SDG-linked interventions have already helped achieve a measurable 23 per cent reduction in cumulative emissions between 2015 and 2070 in comparison to a no-policy scenario, demonstrating the long-term gains of consistent administrative effort.

Urging trainees to remain humble, accessible and open to learning from experienced colleagues, Murthy said integrity, competence and willingness to adapt remained the foundations of good governance.

He also participated in an interactive session where he responded to questions on the expansion of higher education, highlighting the establishment of new IITs, IIMs and NITs to meet rising demand and strengthen research in emerging disciplines.