✎ Poor financial planning and weak scheme alignment caused Green India Mission to miss forest cover targets significantly.

Relevance for Banking, SSC & RBI Grade B exams: Polity & Governance

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report highlights significant shortfalls in India’s Green India Mission (GIM), attributing them to poor financial planning and weak alignment with existing schemes like CAMPA and MGNREGS. The audit, covering 16 states and Union territories from 2015-16 to 2024-25, found a 91.87% shortfall in improving forest cover quality and a 97.57% shortfall in expanding forest cover, despite a target of 1.4 million hectares. The report also noted the absence of convergence between GIM and other initiatives, leading to a loss of ₹10,600 crore in proposed funding support. Only ₹1,149.14 crore (47.88%) of the approved ₹2,400 crore was received over a decade, reflecting systemic inefficiencies in budgetary execution. Poor coordination among programs like Nagar Van Yojana and School Nursery Yojana further exacerbated delays, with only six of 68 Annual Plans of Operation (APOs) submitted before the financial year began.

For banking and SSC aspirants, this report underscores the importance of governance, financial management, and policy implementation—key areas tested in exams like RBI Grade B and IBPS. The CAG’s findings on fund mismanagement and lack of convergence highlight the need for aspirants to understand public finance, audit mechanisms, and inter-scheme coordination. For RBI Grade B candidates, the report ties into broader themes of climate finance and sustainable development, while SSC aspirants may encounter questions on environmental governance and audit reports in the General Studies section. The case also serves as a real-world example of how poor planning impacts national missions, a critical lesson for future policymakers and administrators.

Source: Hindustan Times

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