GUWAHATI: Assam has marginally improved its performance in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index, according to a report released by Niti Aayog.
SDG is performance based index which comprehensively documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories keeping in line with the United Nations Mandate of sustainable development.
India’s composite score has improved from 57 in 2018 to 60 in 2019, thereby showing noticeable progress. The maximum gains been made in Goals 6 (clean water and sanitation), 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) and 7 (affordable and clean energy). All three states that were in the ‘Aspirant’ category (with score/s in the range of 0–49)—Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam—have graduated to the ‘Performer’ category (50–64), the report said.
The SDG India Index—has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), United Nations in India, and Global Green Growth Institute.
‘In 2020, the world enters the final decade for achieving the SDGs—the ‘Decade for Action’. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that we have 12 years left to save the planet from the worst effects of climate change. So, the time to act is now. The SDG India Index 2.0 and the dashboard enables India to both track and encourage accelerated progress to meet the SDGs across all its States and Union Territories,’ said UN Resident Coordinator Renata Dessallien.
The biggest improvers since 2018 are UP (which has moved from the 29th position to the 23rd), Orissa (23rd to 15th), and Sikkim (15th to 7th). While Bihar improved its score from 48 in 2018 to 50 in 2019.
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.