The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) K Sanjay Murthy on Sunday outlined a new set of national audit priorities spanning urban governance, MSME facilitation, primary education and multimodal logistics, with particular emphasis on the Indian Railways.
The move aims to align audit focus with India’s long-term development goals and address areas critical to achieving “Ease of Living”, “Ease of Doing Business” and reducing logistics costs. With over half of India’s population expected to reside in urban areas by 2047, the CAG said it is reinvigorating audits of urban local governments to evaluate the quality of life in 101 cities.
This exercise will assess progress under the broader Ease of Living theme, examining infrastructure availability, environmental sustainability, service delivery and local economic growth. “Our findings will provide actionable insights on urban issues, impacting the daily lives of more than 40 crore urban citizens,” Murthy said.
A second major audit priority is the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, given its central role in job creation and exports. The CAG has initiated a dedicated audit on the Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs, focusing on key enablers such as paperless and faceless processes, user-friendly digital interfaces and the efficiency of grievance-redressal systems. The audit seeks to identify procedural bottlenecks and highlight reforms needed to improve the business climate for small enterprises.
Human capital development has also been identified as a national imperative. To support the goal of ensuring foundational skills among schoolchildren, the CAG has launched a pan-India audit of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN). This assessment will review progress in early-grade learning outcomes and provide recommendations to help the government meet its FLN objectives, regarded as essential for India’s transition to a developed nation.
On infrastructure and connectivity, the CAG plans a comprehensive audit of the government’s multimodal transport and logistics initiative under the PM Gati Shakti framework, with a particular focus on the Indian Railways. Designed as a cross-sectoral review, it will examine planning and coordination among ports, railways, freight operators and terminal agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated logistics planning.
The goal is to determine whether efforts toward seamless multimodal connectivity—crucial for lowering logistics costs—are on track. This follows extensive consultations with stakeholders including the Ministry of Railways, port authorities and private operators.
To strengthen its internal capacity, the CAG is building a future-ready audit ecosystem. As part of this effort, it has partnered with IIT Madras to launch a certification programme in data science, AI and cybersecurity for IT auditing. Over 250 officers are currently undergoing training, with a target of training 5,000 officers over the next five years.