Public Finance Playground

Public Finance Playground (fiscalplayground.in) is a suite of interactive, open-access web tools designed to make Indian public economics, taxation, and subnational budgets intuitive and practical for citizens, journalists, researchers, and students. Developed by Sarthak Pradhan and Pranay Kotasthane as companion tools to their book Fiscal Fables: A Citizen’s Guide to Public Finance (Penguin Business), the playground translates complex fiscal documents into structured, exploratory interfaces.

The playground brings together three core tools:

• Where Did My Income Tax Go?: An interactive tax-transparency calculator that breaks down an individual’s personal income tax contribution into exact rupee amounts allocated across Union government functions for FY2025-26. It maps individual tax rupees to national defence, transport infrastructure, major social welfare schemes, agriculture, education, healthcare, interest obligations, and transfers to states.
• State Fiscal Indicators: A comparative subnational explorer tracking fiscal health across all Indian states and Union Territories. Drawing on state budget data and GSDP estimates, it visualises key fiscal aggregates such as revenue receipts, own-tax buoyancy, development versus non-development expenditure, debt-to-GSDP ratios, and fiscal deficit trajectories over time.
• State Budget Analyser: A client-side document intelligence and evaluation tool that ingests state budget speech PDFs and financial statements. It automatically extracts and computes indicators across a comprehensive 9-dimension framework — covering revenue profile, expenditure quality, committed expenditure, fiscal position, debt sustainability, off-budget borrowings, subsidy burden, devolution & grants, and budget credibility — including a dedicated “Classroom mode” to test Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) compliance understanding.

All applications run entirely in the browser with zero data tracking or registration requirements, and include multiple aesthetic visual modes (Warm Storybook, Modern Playground, and Retro Arcade) designed for accessible classroom teaching, public reporting, and policy research.