“You know that India is one sixth of the global community. Our development needs are enormous. Our poverty or prosperity will have direct impact on the global poverty or prosperity. People in India have waited too long for access to modern amenities and means of development. We have committed to complete this task sooner than anticipated. However, we have also said that we will do all this in a cleaner and greener way” - Prime Minister Narendra Modi (2018)

Introduction

• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in 2015 for future development trajectory to all nations with focus on poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, peace and prosperity.
• The SDGs are global goals, built upon the erstwhile Millennium Development Goals.
• Estimates suggest that US$5 to US$7 trillion per year is required for financing these goals worldwide and US$3.9 trillion per year in developing countries. However, the current investment in developing countries is around US$1.4 trillion leading to a shortfall of US$2.5 trillion per year

SDG India Index

• It has been developed by NITI Aayog to track the progress of all the States and UTs across 13 out of 17 SDGs.
• It excludes Goal 12, 13, 14 and 17 on account of unavailability of comparable data across States/UTs.
• This SDG index provides an aggregate assessment of India’s progress and helps in informed policy formulations.
• The score varies from 0 to 100. A score of 0 denotes worst performance.

• The SDG Index Score ranges between 42 and 69 for States and between 57 and 68 for UTs.
• Several states have achieved 100 in SDG 10 (Reduced Inequality) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).
• It can be attributed to initiatives such as PMJDY, MGNREGA, the National Environment Policy, National Agro-forestry Policy and Green Highways Policy.
• In SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), large number of states are in the ‘Aspirants’ category’.
• Goa, a front runner among all the States and UTs in SDG 11, has been doing exceptionally well in waste management.
• Kerala and Himachal Pradesh are the front runners amongst all the states with a score of 69. Tamil Nadu is also progressing very fast.
• Among the UTs, Chandigarh and Puducherry are the front runners with a score of 68 and 65 respectively.

Collaboration between the national and sub-national governments as well as active participation of all other relevant stakeholders are required for meeting the challenges of financing, technical support and continuous monitoring of the progress.