Answer

Introduction

Water budgeting is a scientific accounting framework that quantifies water inflows (rainfall, groundwater) and outflows (human, agricultural demand) to assess the supply-demand balance. In November 2025, NITI Aayog released the “Water Budgeting in Aspirational Blocks” report, leveraging the Varuni web-platform to operationalize data-driven water planning across 18 pilot blocks, ensuring resilience against climate-induced water stress.

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Role of Water Budgeting and Varuni in Climate Resilience

• Evidence-Based Governance: The Varuni platform automates the calculation of water availability using authentic public datasets, shifting administrations from reactive crisis management to proactive planning. 
• Sectoral Demand Mapping: It precisely estimates demand across human, livestock, and industrial sectors, preventing the “blind” over-extraction of resources.
• Early Scarcity Warnings: By identifying “hotspots” before critical levels are reached, the platform allows local authorities to implement immediate demand-management strategies.
  Eg: The 2025 report identified critical deficits in blocks like Namchi (94%) and Gangiri (60%), enabling urgent region-specific interventions.
• Groundwater Sustainability: It categorizes blocks (Safe/Critical/Over-exploited) to regulate abstraction and mandate artificial recharge structures. 
• Context-Specific Adaptation: The initiative caters to diverse agro-climatic zones, from Himalayan springs to coastal salinity barriers, rather than using “one-size-fits-all” solutions.
• Optimization of Surface Water: Budgeting reveals underutilized surface assets, encouraging the rehabilitation of traditional tanks and ponds to reduce dependency on deep aquifers. 
• Community Behavioral Shift: By visualizing water as a “common pool resource,” the budgeting exercise motivates villages to adopt water-efficient cropping patterns.

Conclusion

Water budgeting via the Varuni platform is a “game-changer” for achieving Water Vision at 2047. By decentralizing water governance to the Aspirational Blocks, India is moving toward a “Circular Water Economy.” This diagnostic tool ensures that every drop is accounted for, transforming vulnerable blocks into climate-resilient hubs that can sustain both livelihoods and ecological health in the face of erratic monsoons.

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