NITI Aayog released Sustainable Development Goals Index 2019-20. According to the report, the overall composite score of India improved from 60 in 2018 to 57 in 2019.

• It has been developed by Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in collaboration with United Nations in India, and Global Green Growth Institute.
• Index 2019 covers 16 out of 17 SDGs and a qualitative assessment on Goal 17. This marks an improvement over 2018 Index, which covered only 13 goals.
• Kerala ranked first in composite SDG index with score of 70. Kerala was followed by Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
• The least performing states were Bihar, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh.
• In terms of poverty reduction, states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim performed well.

The states were classified under 4 categories based on their scores. The states with scores between 0 and 49 were categorized ‘Aspirant’, between 50 and 64 were ‘Performers’, between 65 and 99 were ‘Front Runner’ and with a score of 100 were categorized ‘Achiever’.