The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is delighted to invite you to a seminar titled “Public Sector Compensation: Bridging the Data Gaps in India” on Thursday, April 23, 2026, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm (IST) at the CSEP Auditorium, 6, Dr Jose P Rizal Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021.

The seminar will feature a presentation by Shruti Gupta, Research Associate, CSEP and Tanvi Vipra, Research Analyst, CSEP. This will be followed by a discussion with Jayant Sinha, Former Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General (Government Accounts) & Chairperson, GASAB; Arvind Mehta, Secretary, 15th Finance Commission; and Kesavan Srinivasan, Chairman of the Board, UTIITSL. The session will be chaired and moderated by Anoop Singh, Distinguished Fellow, CSEP & Member, 15th Finance Commission.

Please note that this is an in-person event only. If you are in Delhi on the day, we invite you to join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking discussion. The event will be available on the CSEP website and YouTube channel upon completion.

Register here to attend

About the event

Public sector compensation is among the largest and most rigid components of government spending worldwide. It shapes fiscal sustainability, affects the quality of public services, and often limits how much governments can invest in priority areas. International standards emphasise the need for comprehensive and transparent measurement—but in many countries, compensation is underestimated due to fragmented reporting and incomplete coverage.

This report looks at the reported estimates for India’s public sector compensation and the data gaps that understate the true fiscal cost of pay and pensions. By adjusting for these gaps, the report shows that the fiscal cost of India’s actual compensation burden is higher than reported. The report then discusses reforms to strengthen measurement and fiscal transparency, consistent with international standards, including improved coverage, standardised definitions, and integrated data systems.

Chair & Moderator

Anoop Singh 

Anoop Singh is Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog, Government of India. He is also Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), New Delhi. He was member of the 15th Finance Commission of India.

Before that, he was Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University; Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific Global Regulatory and Strategy Policy, JP Morgan; and Member of the Working Party of the Robert Triffin International (RTI) on the reform of the international monetary system. At the International Monetary Fund, he was Director of the Asia and Pacific Department; Director of the Western Hemisphere Department; and Director of Special Operations.

He holds degrees from the universities of Bombay, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. His additional work experience includes being Special Advisor to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. His recent publications include Managing Public Finances in a New Global Era (2025).

Panellists

Jayant Sinha

Jayant Sinha is Former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General (Government Accounts) and Chairperson of the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. He belongs to the 1990 batch of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Sinha has held a range of senior positions in the Government of India. He has served as Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser to the Ministries of Planning, Information and Broadcasting, and Statistics and Programme Implementation. Earlier, he was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence and the Seventh Pay Commission, and Deputy Secretary (Budget) in the Ministry of Finance.

Within the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, he has served as Principal Accountant General (Audit), Uttar Pradesh; Accountant General (Accounts), Jharkhand; Principal Director of Audit at the High Commission of India in London; and Secretary to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

His experience spans financial, compliance, and performance audits in both domestic and international settings, including assignments involving the FAO, WHO, UNHCR, and IMO. He has also worked extensively with parliamentary and legislative committees, including the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings, at both the Union and state levels.

Arvind Mehta 

Arvind Mehta, an officer of the 1984 batch of the Indian Administrative Service, has served for more than thirty-nine years in a wide range of positions in the Government of India and the Government of Himachal Pradesh. He retired in December 2020 as Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Finance. Prior to this, he served from 2017 to 2020 as Secretary to the Fifteenth Finance Commission.

Over the course of his career, Mehta has held positions at the Director and Joint Secretary levels in the Ministries of Defence and Disinvestment, the Planning Commission, and the Prime Minister’s Office. His longest tenure in the Government of India was in the Ministry of Commerce, where he served continuously between 2009 and 2016 as Joint Secretary and later Additional Secretary. During this period, he was India’s lead trade negotiator for SAARC countries.

In Himachal Pradesh, Mehta played a central role in the formulation of more than ten state budgets between 1990 and 2009, including during his tenure as Finance Secretary. He is the co-author of Reflections on India’s Public Policies, published in 2023, which examines a range of unfinished questions in public finance and economic policy.

Kesavan Srinivasan  

Kesavan Srinivasan retired as Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General, after a career of nearly four decades in audit, finance, and public governance.

During his tenure, he played a leading role in strengthening public financial management, including guiding the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board’s efforts to introduce accrual accounting in the public sector. He has served in a range of positions across India and abroad, including as Accountant General in several Indian states, and has undertaken audit assignments for the United Nations and its agencies.

Srinivasan currently serves as Senior Adviser at Janaagraha in the area of public financial management. He was also a member of the International Advisory Board of Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA), a multilateral initiative supported by the World Bank, IMF, European Union, and partner governments to strengthen public financial management systems and institutional accountability.

In addition, he is Distinguished Fellow at the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, where he undertook projects for the Ministry of Finance, and served as a consultant to the World Bank’s Macroeconomics practice.

Presenters

Shruti Gupta

Shruti Gupta is a Research Associate in the Fiscal Governance team within the Growth, Finance, and Development vertical. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Ashoka University. Her research focuses on Public Finance Management, with a particular emphasis on addressing fiscal challenges in India. She aims to build a career in the domain of public policy.

Tanvi Vipra  

Tanvi Vipra is a policy researcher with experience in working on fiscal, climate, energy, and agricultural issues. She has previously worked at PRS Legislative Research and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, assisting legislators and bureaucrats with policy questions. Her interest lies in building people-centric, economically sustainable policies.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.