Class 12 Economics Union Budget Project: 10-Year Data Guide

A Union Budget project can become a pile of impressive numbers very quickly. You collect ten PDFs, draw a colourful graph, and then reach the difficult part: what do these figures actually tell you?

Start with one question you can answer well: How have education and health ministry allocations changed over ten financial years, both in rupees and as shares of the Union Budget?

That gives your project a clear purpose. It also creates a useful surprise. An allocation can grow substantially in rupees while taking a smaller share of the total budget. Both statements can be true.

This guide includes a complete ten-year example, a repeatable collection method, worked calculations, and a structure you can adapt for your own file. The data cover 2017-18 to 2026-27, using Budget Estimates throughout. The figures and source links were checked on 6 October 2026.

Give your project a question and a boundary

A suitable title for your project file is:

A Comparative Study of Union Budget Allocations for Education and Health: 2017-18 to 2026-27.

Your objectives could be to:

• Collect ten consecutive years of Budget Estimates for the two ministries.
• Calculate annual growth and each ministry’s share of total Union expenditure.
• Compare the beginning and end of the period.
• Explain what these allocations show, and what they cannot establish.

You are studying the Union government’s planned allocations to two ministries. You are not measuring every rupee spent on education or healthcare in India.

State governments spend on these services too. Other Union ministries also support related activities. Household spending is another separate category. Keep all of that outside this particular table, and say so in your methodology.

If your teacher requires more sectors, the same approach can be extended. First check whether each proposed sector has a stable definition across your chosen years. Agriculture, infrastructure and social welfare can involve several ministries and overlapping schemes, so a headline figure may need more explanation than you expect.

Understand BE, RE and Actuals before collecting anything

Budget documents can show several figures for the same financial year. Read the heading before copying the number.

Label	What it means	What it helps you study
Budget Estimates, or BE	The allocation planned in that budget	Initial spending intentions
Revised Estimates, or RE	The updated estimate during the year	How the estimate has changed
Actuals	Expenditure recorded after the year	What was spent

This project uses BE against BE. That makes it a comparison of planned allocations over time.

If your question is whether allocated funds were actually used, build a separate table comparing BE and Actuals for the same year. Do not quietly replace some BE observations with Actuals in the ten-year series.

For example, suppose an imaginary ministry has BE of Rs 100 crore, RE of Rs 110 crore and Actuals of Rs 105 crore. Actual expenditure is 5% above BE but below RE. Calling this a 5% fall because you chose the wrong comparison would reverse the meaning of your answer.

The Ministry of Finance’s Key to Budget Documents is a useful starting point for understanding the different publications. For the school-level concepts behind the project, read NCERT’s Government Budget and the Economy.

Define education and health consistently

For the example below, use these exact boundaries.

Education: the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the earlier budgets, followed by the Ministry of Education. The series includes School Education and Literacy plus Higher Education. Treat the change of ministry name as a naming change in your table, while continuing to check the departments included.

Health: the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, including the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Health Research. This series excludes the separate Ministry of Ayush.

These are ministry-based measures. Write the full definitions below your table so that short column headings do not mislead the reader.

A broad announcement about health and wellbeing may include water, sanitation or other spending. That is not automatically comparable with the Health and Family Welfare ministry total. Equally, education-related spending by other ministries is not included in this education series.

Where to find the official figures

Use the Union Budget website and its previous-budget pages. For each year, open the Expenditure Budget, then the Ministry wise Summary of Budget Provisions.

The summary gives revenue, capital and total provisions. Copy the Total for the ministry, not only its revenue column. The summary states that provisions are net of receipts and recoveries.

Use the Grand Total from that same summary for your denominator. This keeps the ministry numerator and total-budget denominator on the same basis.

A simple collection routine is:

1. Open the full budget for the financial year you need.
2. Check that the document heading says Budget Estimates for that year.
3. Find the ministry name and copy its Total.
4. Copy the Grand Total from the same document.
5. Record the document link, unit, page and date accessed.
6. Recheck the figures before calculating percentages.

For 2019-20 and 2024-25, use the full Union Budgets presented in July rather than blending their figures with the earlier interim budgets. The table below links the full-budget summaries used.

Ten years of official education and health allocations

All amounts below are Rs crore, at current prices. All observations are Budget Estimates. Education and Health refer to the ministry definitions above. Each year links directly to its official source PDF.

Financial year and source	Education	Health	Total Union expenditure
2017-18	79,685.95	48,852.51	21,46,734.78
2018-19	85,010.29	54,600.00	24,42,213.30
2019-20	94,853.64	64,559.12	27,86,349.45
2020-21	99,311.52	67,111.80	30,42,230.09
2021-22	93,224.31	73,931.77	34,83,235.63
2022-23	1,04,277.72	86,200.65	39,44,908.67
2023-24	1,12,899.47	89,155.00	45,03,097.45
2024-25	1,20,627.87	90,958.63	48,20,512.08
2025-26	1,28,650.05	99,858.56	50,65,345.04
2026-27	1,39,289.48	1,06,530.42	53,47,314.81

Source: Ministry of Finance, annual Expenditure Budget summaries linked in the first column. These are ministry allocations, not combined Centre-and-state expenditure on the two sectors. The current-year link may move into the budget archive when a later budget is released, so retain a dated copy for your project.

Notice the education allocation in 2021-22. It is lower than the previous year’s BE. Keep the observation. Do not smooth it away because you expected every line to rise.

Four calculations that turn your table into analysis

1. Annual percentage growth

Use:

Annual growth = (current year’s BE - previous year’s BE) / previous year’s BE x 100.

For education in 2026-27:

• Increase = Rs 1,39,289.48 crore - Rs 1,28,650.05 crore.
• Increase = Rs 10,639.43 crore.
• Growth = 10,639.43 / 1,28,650.05 x 100.
• Growth = approximately 8.27%.

Write the interpretation immediately: the education ministry’s BE increased by about 8.27% over the preceding year’s BE.

For health over the same two years, the corresponding increase is approximately 6.68%. Do not interpret the difference as a comparison of teaching quality and medical outcomes. It compares allocation growth.

The first observation in a ten-year table has no growth rate unless you also collect the preceding year. Leave that cell blank or write “not calculated”. Zero would incorrectly mean there was no change.

2. Share of total Union expenditure

Use:

Ministry share = ministry BE / total Union expenditure BE x 100.

For education in 2026-27:

1,39,289.48 / 53,47,314.81 x 100 = approximately 2.60%.

This means that about Rs 2.60 of every Rs 100 in total Union expenditure BE is allocated to this ministry. It does not mean that India spends 2.60% of GDP on education.

Here are the shares calculated from the unrounded amounts above, displayed to two decimal places:

Financial year	Education share	Health share
2017-18	3.71%	2.28%
2018-19	3.48%	2.24%
2019-20	3.40%	2.32%
2020-21	3.26%	2.21%
2021-22	2.68%	2.12%
2022-23	2.64%	2.19%
2023-24	2.51%	1.98%
2024-25	2.50%	1.89%
2025-26	2.54%	1.97%
2026-27	2.60%	1.99%

A share depends on two changing numbers. Even when a ministry’s allocation rises, its share falls if total expenditure grows faster.

3. Growth across the whole period

Use:

Period growth = (last value / first value - 1) x 100.

Between 2017-18 and 2026-27:

• Education BE rises by approximately 74.80%.
• Health BE rises by approximately 118.07%.
• Total Union expenditure BE rises by approximately 149.09%.

That third figure helps explain why both ministry shares are lower at the end than at the beginning. Neither ministry allocation grew as quickly as the total expenditure denominator over the full period.

These are nominal increases. They have not been adjusted for inflation.

4. Percentage-point change in budget share

Subtract the starting share from the ending share, using unrounded shares in your calculation.

Education’s share falls from approximately 3.712% to 2.605%, a decline of about 1.11 percentage points. Health’s share falls from approximately 2.276% to 1.992%, a decline of about 0.28 percentage points.

A percentage-point change is not the same as a percentage change. A share falling from 4% to 3% falls by one percentage point, or 25% relative to its original share.

Optional extension: calculate CAGR correctly

If you want one average annual growth measure, use the compound annual growth rate:

CAGR = [(last value / first value)^(1/n) - 1] x 100.

Here, n = 9, because ten annual observations contain nine year-to-year intervals.

Using the ministry figures, education’s CAGR is about 6.40%, while health’s is about 9.05%.

CAGR describes the constant annual rate that would connect the two endpoints. It does not mean either allocation actually grew at that rate every year. In particular, it hides the education decline visible in the middle of the series.

For a spreadsheet, enter the first education allocation in B2 and the last in B11. The formula =(B11/B2)^(1/9)-1 gives the rate when the result is formatted as a percentage.

Build a worksheet you can check easily

Keep your raw figures together before adding analysis columns:

• Column A: financial year.
• Column B: education BE, in Rs crore.
• Column C: health BE, in Rs crore.
• Column D: total Union expenditure BE, in Rs crore.
• Column E: education share, calculated as =B2/D2.
• Column F: health share, calculated as =C2/D2.
• Column G: education growth, starting in row 3 with =B3/B2-1.
• Column H: health growth, starting in row 3 with =C3/C2-1.

Format E to H as percentages. Do not multiply those spreadsheet formulas by 100 and then apply percentage formatting, or the displayed result will be one hundred times too large.

Keep the full source amounts in B to D. Round the displayed results rather than repeatedly rounding the inputs. A small difference in the last decimal place can otherwise make your conclusion disagree with your table.

Choose graphs that answer different questions

Graph 1: allocation levels

Draw a two-line graph with financial years along the horizontal axis and allocations in Rs crore on the vertical axis. Use one colour for education and another for health, with a clear legend.

Give it the title Education and Health Ministry Budget Estimates, 2017-18 to 2026-27. Start the vertical scale at zero for a straightforward comparison of levels.

Below the graph, explain that both endpoint allocations are higher, while education has a dip in 2021-22. Avoid calling the increase continuous when the data contain a fall.

Graph 2: shares of total expenditure

Use the percentage table for a second two-line graph. Label the vertical axis Share of total Union expenditure BE (%).

A scale from 0% to 4% works for this example. The graph shows that neither share moves down in every single year. Both are lower at the endpoint than at the start, but both recover from their 2024-25 shares by 2026-27.

That is more accurate than writing “the shares kept falling for ten years.”

Optional graph: growth from a common starting point

To compare relative growth, set each ministry’s 2017-18 allocation equal to 100. Calculate each later index as:

Year’s allocation / that ministry’s 2017-18 allocation x 100.

The final index is approximately 174.80 for education and 218.07 for health. This shows that health grew faster proportionately, even though its rupee allocation remains smaller.

Avoid a pie chart containing only education and health if your caption says it represents the whole Union Budget. Together, these two ministries account for only part of expenditure. A whole-budget pie would need an “all other expenditure” segment using the same denominator.

Write findings that the data actually support

A useful findings section separates observation from interpretation.

Finding 1: Nominal allocations increased over the period. Education BE rose from Rs 79,685.95 crore to Rs 1,39,289.48 crore, while health BE rose from Rs 48,852.51 crore to Rs 1,06,530.42 crore.

Finding 2: Health grew faster in percentage terms. Its endpoint increase was about 118.07%, compared with 74.80% for education. Education nevertheless retained the larger ministry allocation in every year of this example.

Finding 3: Both endpoint budget shares were lower. Total Union expenditure BE increased faster than either ministry’s allocation across the period. However, the annual shares fluctuated, and both increased between 2024-25 and 2026-27.

Finding 4: The table cannot establish service outcomes. Higher planned allocations do not, by themselves, prove higher learning achievement, better treatment access or more efficient delivery. Those questions need additional evidence.

A conclusion you could adapt is:

“The study finds substantial nominal growth in the Budget Estimates of both ministries. However, their shares of total Union expenditure were lower in 2026-27 than in 2017-18 because total expenditure grew faster. These results describe changes in planned ministry allocations. They do not establish actual utilisation, inflation-adjusted purchasing power or changes in education and health outcomes.”

Use this as a model for the reasoning, then write your own conclusion after checking your calculations.

Explain limitations without weakening your project

A limitation tells the reader what your evidence can answer. It is part of good analysis.

Prices change. A 20% nominal increase does not necessarily buy 20% more services. A real-spending study needs an appropriate price measure and a clearly explained base year. Do not call these figures inflation-adjusted.

Allocations are not utilisation. To examine delivery, extend the project with Actuals for completed years. A change between BE and RE still does not tell you the final expenditure.

Ministries are not entire sectors. These totals exclude state budgets, private spending and relevant expenditure outside the selected ministries.

Accounting labels need care. Do not assume every education or health rupee is capital expenditure because it helps future wellbeing. Nor is revenue expenditure necessarily unproductive: services need teachers, doctors and operating supplies. Some grants used to create assets are classified as revenue expenditure in the Union accounts.

Changes need explanation, not guesses. An unusual movement may reflect policy decisions, scheme changes or accounting adjustments. Use the relevant year’s explanatory notes before claiming a cause. The table alone does not establish why a particular allocation changed.

For the wider financing context, our guide to revenue, fiscal and primary deficits can help you distinguish expenditure choices from how the budget is financed.

Arrange the project file around your investigation

Follow your teacher’s instructions for any compulsory front pages. For the main work, this order keeps the argument easy to follow:

1. Introduction and research question.
2. Objectives and scope.
3. Meaning of BE, RE and Actuals.
4. Sources and collection method.
5. Ten-year raw-data table.
6. Worked calculations and derived table.
7. Graphs with a short interpretation below each.
8. Findings, limitations and conclusion.
9. Bibliography and any supporting extracts.

In your methodology, state the period, ministry definitions, current-price basis, unit and BE-only approach. In the bibliography, include the Ministry of Finance, financial year, document title, link and date accessed for each PDF.

There is no need to invent interviews or surveys for a study built from published budget documents. Describe it honestly as a secondary-data project.

Before submitting, check one early year, one middle year and the final year directly against their PDFs. Recalculate at least one share and one growth rate by hand. Then read each graph caption without looking at the graph: does it still identify the unit, period and measure?

Frequently asked questions

Which ten years should I choose for a Union Budget project?

Choose ten consecutive financial years that fit your teacher’s brief and have comparable data. This example uses 2017-18 to 2026-27. If the task requires actual spending, use a period for which all ten years of Actuals are available instead.

Should I use Budget Estimates, Revised Estimates or Actuals?

Choose according to the question. BE helps compare planned allocations, RE shows updated estimates, and Actuals measure recorded expenditure. Keep the main time series consistent and use a separate table if you want to compare these measures.

Is the education ministry allocation India’s total education spending?

No. It is a specific Union ministry allocation. State spending, private spending and education-related expenditure elsewhere are outside this table. Label the figure precisely.

Does the health figure include Ayush?

No. The example uses the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, including Health Research. Ayush has a separate ministry allocation. A broader health measure needs an explicit definition applied to every year.

Why can an allocation rise while its budget share falls?

Because the denominator can grow faster. If a ministry’s allocation rises by 5% while total expenditure rises by 10%, the ministry receives more rupees but accounts for a smaller proportion of the total.

Is budget share the same as spending as a percentage of GDP?

No. Budget share divides by total budget expenditure. A GDP ratio divides by GDP. They answer different questions, so label the denominator and match the financial year and measurement basis.

Why does a ten-year CAGR calculation use nine intervals?

The first year is the starting observation. Moving from the first observation to the tenth involves nine annual changes. Count the gaps between the years rather than the number of rows.

Can I conclude that a larger allocation improved outcomes?

Not from this table alone. You would need evidence about actual spending and relevant outcomes, such as learning indicators or service access. Even then, consider other influences before claiming that one caused the other.

What should I say if asked why I chose education and health?

Explain that both connect public spending with people’s capabilities and wellbeing, while their named ministry totals allow a manageable comparison. Then acknowledge that these ministry totals do not cover all spending on either sector.

What is the most important final check?

Check that every figure has the correct year, BE label, unit, ministry boundary and source. Once those match, your calculations and conclusions have a dependable foundation.