Abstract
Behavioural public policy (BPP) has emerged as an increasingly important approach to improving public programmes. India provides a particularly important setting because of its policy scale, socio-economic heterogeneity, institutional complexity, strong social norms and expanding digital public infrastructure. This paper reviews BPP’s development in India and critically examines evidence on its application, effectiveness and scalability.
The paper traces behavioural insights from academic research into Indian policy, including their recognition in the Economic Survey 2018–19 and subsequent incorporation into sanitation, taxation, financial inclusion, health, nutrition, environmental behaviour and social protection initiatives. NITI Aayog’s examination of 121 government schemes through a behaviour-change lens indicates increasing institutionalisation.
Drawing on experimental studies, programme evaluations, administrative data, government reports and behavioural-policy literature, the paper examines selected Indian cases, including the Swachh Bharat Mission, tax compliance, financial and digital behaviour, and waste segregation. It considers mechanisms including social norms, salience, defaults, identity, simplification, reminders, social recognition, administrative burden and choice architecture, distinguishing behavioural change from improvements in ultimate policy or welfare outcomes.
Three findings emerge. First, behavioural interventions can generate meaningful individual and collective changes, particularly when aligned with existing social norms and supported by effective implementation. Second, impacts are heterogeneous and strongly dependent on institutional, socio-economic and cultural context. Third, scaling successful experiments remains challenging because it can alter treatment intensity, implementation fidelity, social interactions, administrative capacity and behavioural responses.
The paper argues that BPP in India must extend beyond the “nudge”, integrating behavioural insights with infrastructure, incentives, administrative reform, digital systems and institutional capacity. It proposes six stages: behavioural diagnosis, intervention design, experimentation, outcome evaluation, scaling and institutionalisation. India’s experience offers an opportunity to design behaviourally informed public systems centred on causal evidence, contextual heterogeneity, welfare outcomes and scalability.