NITI Aayog on December 30, 2019 released the second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index, which comprehensively documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.
The SDG India Index—which has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), United Nations in India, and Global Green Growth Institute—was launched by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar; Members Dr Ramesh Chand and Dr V K Paul; CEO Amitabh Kant; UN Resident Coordinator Renata Dessallien; MoSPI Secretary and Chief Statistician of India Pravin Srivastava; and NITI Aayog SDG Adviser Sanyukta Samaddar.
India composite score improved
- India has improved its composite score from 57 in 2018 to 60 in the Sustainable Development Goals Index 2019-20. The maximum gains been made in Goals 6 (clean water and sanitation), 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) and 7 (affordable and clean energy).
- This has been achieved due to better works in water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy and industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
- Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have topped the list of states on the SDGs Index-2019-20.
Kerala topped the index
- Kerala achieved the first rank in the composite SDG Index with a score of 70, followed by Himachal Pradesh at 69. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu ranked at the third position with the score of 67.
Biggest improvement
- The states showing biggest improvement since 2018 are Uttar Pradesh which has moved from the 29th position to the 23rd, Odisha from 23rd to 15th and Sikkim from 15th to 7th position.
- While Bihar improved its score from 48 in 2018 to 50 in 2019, it still has a long way to go in achieving the targets.
Achievements
- According to, Dr Kumar said, this year no state has scored below 50 out of 100 score. He said, nutrition and gender equality continue to be problem areas for the country which require a more focused approach.
Dashboard 2019-20.
- NITI Aayog also launched the Dashboard 2019-20.
- The SDG India Index and Dashboard track the progress and ranks all States and Union Territories on 100 indicators drawn from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s National Indicator Framework, comprising 306 indicators.
- It indicates where the country and its States and UTs currently are on SDG implementation. It also charts the distance to be travelled to reach the SDG targets. The Index covers 16 out of 17 SDGs and a qualitative assessment on Goal 17.
About SDG Index calculation
- A composite score was computed in the range of 0–100 for each State/UT based on its aggregate performance across 16 SDGs, indicating the average performance of every State/UT towards achieving 16 SDGs and their respective targets.
- If a State/UT achieves a score of 100, it signifies it has achieved the 2030 national targets. The higher the score of a State/UT, the closer it is towards achieving the targets.
Classification criteria based on SDG India Indexscore is as follows:
- Aspirant: 0–49
- Performer: 50–64
- Front Runner: 65–99
- Achiever: 100
