NITI Aayog Releases SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020–21

Context

The third edition of the SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020–21 has been released by NITI Aayog.

What is SDG India Index?

• The SDG India Index & Dashboard measures the progress at the national and sub-national levels in our journey towards meeting the Global Goals and targets.
• Design and developed by: Designed and developed by NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the United Nations in India. It has also been successful as an advocacy tool to propagate the messages of sustainability, resilience, and partnerships.
• Launched in: 2018
• Coverage: From covering 13 Goals, 39 targets, and 62 indicators in its first edition in 2018, this third edition of the Index covers all 17 Goals, 70 targets, and 115 indicators.

Overall Results and Findings

• The country’s overall SDG score improved by 6 points—from 60 in 2019 to 66 in 2020–21.
• This positive stride towards achieving the targets is largely driven by exemplary country-wide performance in Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), where the composite Goal scores are 83 and 92, respectively.

The top-five and bottom-five States in SDG India Index 2020–21:

• Mizoram, Haryana, and Uttarakhand are the top gainers in 2020–21in terms of improvement in score from 2019, with an increase of 12, 10 and 8 points, respectively.

Top Fast-Moving States (Score-Wise):

• While in 2019, ten States/UTs belonged to the category of Front-Runners (score in the range 65–99, including both) twelve more States/UTs find themselves in this category in 2020–21.
• Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Punjab, Haryana, Tripura, Delhi, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh graduated to the category of Front-Runners (scores between 65 and 99, including both).