SDG 1: No Poverty

• Target 1.1 – By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day
  • Indicator 1.1.1 – Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographical location (urban/rural)
• Target 1.2 – By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
  • Indicator 1.2.2 – Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
• Target 1.3 – Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
  • Indicator 1.3.1 – Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, new borns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable
• Target 1.4 – By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
  • Indicator 1.4.1 – Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

• Target 2.1 – By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
  • Indicator 2.1.1 – Prevalence of undernourishment
• Target 2.2 – By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
  • Indicator 2.2.1 – Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
  • Indicator 2.2.2 – Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
  • Indicator 2.2.3 – Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years, by pregnancy status (percentage)
• Target 2.3 – By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
  • Indicator 2.3.2 – Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
• Target 2.4 – By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
  • Indicator 2.4.1 – Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

• Target 3.2 – By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births
  • Indicator 3.2.1 – Under-5 mortality rate
  • Indicator 3.2.2 – Neonatal mortality rate

SDG 4: Quality Education

• Target 4.1 – By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes
  • Indicator 4.1.1 – Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex
  • Indicator 4.1.2 – Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education)
• Target 4.3 – By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
  • Indicator 4.3.1 – Participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months, by sex
• Target 4.4 – By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
  • Indicator 4.4.1 – Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill

SDG 5: Gender Equality

• Target 5.b – Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
  • Indicator 5.b.1 – Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

• Target 7.1 – By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services
  • Indicator 7.1.2 – Proportion of population with primary reliance on clean fuels and technology

SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Economic Growth

• Target 9.3 – Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets
  • Indicator 9.3.2 – Proportion of small-scale industries with a loan or line of credit

SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

• Target 16.6 – Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
  • Indicator 16.6.2 – Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was launched about a decade ago as a major governance reform aimed at improving the overall public service delivery in India. It has been envisaged as a tool to re-engineer processes and to ensure that the benefits under government schemes and services reach the intended beneficiary in a timely manner. The DBT framework leverages the use of digital technologies and digital public infrastructure like digital identity (Aadhaar) to benefit both beneficiaries as well as the Government. The focus under DBT has gradually shifted from “delivery” of government subsidies/benefits to “targeted delivery with last-mile access to benefits” and “Ease of Living”.

The diverse objectives and target population under DBT schemes include:

1. For women:
   1. Clean cooking fuel subsidy (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana)
   2. Maternity benefit (Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana)
   3. Non-contributory pension scheme to widows from poor families (Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme);
2. For youth:
   1. Livelihoods and entrepreneurship generation in rural areas (National Rural Livelihoods Mission)
   2. Skills building and training (National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana)
   3. Job placement/intermediation (Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana);
3. For children:
   1. Rural child care center (Anganwadi Service)
   2. School mid-day meals (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman)
   3. Scholarships to meritorious students from low-income families (National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme)
   4. Provision of free books, uniforms, learning materials for children (Samagra Shiksha)
4. For poor and migrants:
   1. Food security system through distribution of subsidised foodgrains (Public Distribution System)
   2. Public works programme (MGNREGS)

The detailed list of schemes is available here: https://dbtbharat.gov.in/central-scheme/list.

Implementation of DBT is actively pursued in States/Union Territories (UTs), and includes the following:

• End-to-end digitization in schemes, i.e. digitised processes of making an application, processing of applications and disbursement of subsidies and benefits.
• Real-time and cost-effective identification of beneficiaries and their deduplication by using an Identity number (Aadhaar), and
• Financial inclusion through provision of zero-balance savings bank accounts in banks and post offices and ensuring convenient availability of financial touch points and door-step banking services (through Business Correspondents).

All States and UTs have now set up DBT Cells for effective monitoring DBT progress in their respective States. The replication of best practices in DBT has allowed States to identify eligible beneficiaries in a transparent manner, based on their precise socio-economic and demographic information.

Benefits from DBT accrue both to the beneficiaries as well as the Government. At the beneficiary level, DBT has led to the empowerment of citizens by facilitating seamless benefit delivery. For the Government, benefits from DBT include improved quality of service delivery, reduced manual processes, rationalization of fund flows, inclusive delivery of welfare programmes, reduced leakages and reduced cost of delivery by leveraging the Jan Dhan (access to various financial services), Aadhaar number and Mobile number (JAM) trinity and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. The gains from DBT and associated governance reforms have been estimated to be near US$ 49 billion, primarily as a result of removal of duplicate or fake beneficiaries’ records, elimination of middlemen, increasing efficiency of in-kind benefits, etc.

Lessons learned regarding the Direct Benefit Transfer:

1. The need for stakeholder collaboration at all levels of federal governance and across verticals in a ‘whole of government’ approach.
2. The importance of a data-driven digital governance model for effective monitoring.
3. The value of mid-course corrections to ensure flexibility and adaptability to address context-specific challenges.
4. The critical role of inclusive community engagement for successful implementation.
5. The importance of peer learning, in particular through exchange of best practices.
6. The merits of interoperability and modularity of foundational DPIs.
7. The value addition brought about by interlinkages between DPIs.

Conditional cash transfer (CCT); Food transfer or subsidized food (food distribution programmes); Maternity protection/benefits; Job placement/intermediation; Inclusive insurance; Public works, employment guarantee schemes and direct job creation including community development programmes; School meals programmes; Support to livelihood diversification; Training (vocational, life skills, cash for training, entrepreneurship); Access to basic education; Social pension; Subsidized health insurance; Integrated programmes for economic inclusion; Integrated programmes for gender equality and empowerment; Social registry; Multilevel Governance

BlueKraft Digital Foundation

International Monetary Fund

MicroSave Consulting

NITI Aayog

World Bank

The DBT Mission, a vertical of Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India is the nodal point for the implementation of the DBT in India. It is a single point repository for all DBT related information.  The Office, placed under the Cabinet Secretariat w.e.f. 14.09.2015, plays a key role in developing an overall policy framework for implementation and monitoring of DBT in India along with resolving inter Departmental, multi-stakeholder issues and promoting exchange of ideas and best practices at both national and international levels.  The DBT Mission is supported by the DBT Cells of more than 50 schemes implementing Departments at the national level and the 36 State DBT Cells at the sub-national / provincial level that facilitate the implementation at the sector / scheme / regional levels.

DBT involves multi-sectoral coordination and implementation which can be customised to support both – centralised and decentralised approach (depending upon the nature of the scheme), by engaging local communities, line ministries, Self-Help Groups (SHGs), development sector organizations along with various digital, financial and telecom entities and institutions. Unlike the conventional top-down approach, DBT promotes and encourages active collaboration across different levels of governance.

The programme annually benefits more than 1.50 billion non-unique beneficiaries across more than 321 central government schemes/programmes. The state governments also implement about 2500 DBT schemes.

At the Central Government level, cumulative direct benefit transfers or expenditure worth US $520 billion have been made since the inception of DBT. The cost of the policy varies across various schemes/programmes which are dependent upon the different modules that are to be implemented. For this, cost per beneficiary would be favorable towards countries with large, targeted populations as the fixed costs would be apportioned to a larger base. At the State level, savings are estimated at US$49 billion in India.

The DBT Bharat Portal (dbtbharat.gov.in) serves as the primary Management Information System (MIS) for India’s DBT ecosystem. This unified dashboard, managed by the DBT Mission under the Cabinet Secretariat, monitors end-to-end digitization of all central and state schemes—including mobile platform deployment—while coordinating cross-functional priorities like scholarship harmonization and Aadhaar integration. The portal directly links to individual State/UT DBT portals (e.g., MahaDBT), creating a federated monitoring network. It tracks financial inclusion progress and telecom connectivity critical for last-mile access, synthesizing data from core systems:

1. Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) for identity-led routing
2. Public Financial Management System (PFMS) for payment orchestration
3. Core Banking Solution for account validation

dbtbharat.gov.in