NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index

About SDG India Index

• The SDG India Index, which evaluates progress made across 16 goals on a scale of 1 to 100, and if a State/UT achieves a score of 100, it signifies it has achieved the targets. The higher the score of a State/UT, the greater the distance covered to the target.
• Assesses sustainable development across states on the basis of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
• The latest SDG India Index, now in its fourth edition since its inception in 2018, uses 113 indicators to evaluate the performance of each state aligned to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) National Indicator Framework (NIF).

Key finding of the report:

• Overall SDG score for the country is 71 for 2023-24, significant improvement from 66 in 2020-21 and 57 in 2018.
• Kerala and Uttarakhand as the best performing states with a score of 79 points each followed by Tamil Nadu, Goa and Himachal Pradesh , while Bihar emerged as a laggard with 57 points, followed by Jharkhand at 62 points. While Chandigarh took the top spot among Union Territories.
• Significant  progress  in Goals 1 (No Poverty), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 13 (Climate  Action) and 15 (Life  on  Land)
• Goal 13 (Climate Action) records highest increase in score from 54 in 2020-21 to 67 in 2023-24 followed by Goal 1 (No Poverty) from 60 to 72
• While goals like “Gender Equality” (Goal 5) and “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institution” (Goal 16) saw the smallest increase in points.
• Gender Equality goal received the lowest score of 49 points among all goals, recording a marginal increase of 1 point from 2020-21. 
• “Reduced Inequalities” (Goal 10) was the only goal to record a reduction in points to 65 in 2022-23 from 67 in 2020-21.

Practice Question: 

Q. With reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) India Index, consider the following statements:

1. The index released by the Ministry of Rural Development to assesses sustainable development across states
2. Gujarat is the best performing state in this index.
3. Gender Equality (Goal 5) has recorded the highest increase in score in the latest index.

How many of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

Answer: (d)

Explanation

All three statements are incorrect: 

Statement 1 is incorrect: The index released by the Niti Aayog to assess sustainable development across states.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Kerala and Uttarakhand as the best performing states

Statement 3 is incorrect: Goal 13 (Climate Action) records the highest increase in score from 54 in 2020-21 to 67 in 2023-24 followed by Goal 1 (No Poverty) from 60 to 72. While goals like “Gender Equality” (Goal 5) and “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institution” (Goal 16) saw the smallest increase in points.

PYQ: (2022)

Q. Consider the following statements:

Statement-I:

According to the United Nations’ ‘World Water Development Report, 2022′, India extracts more than a quarter of the world’s groundwater withdrawal each year.

Statement-II:

India needs to extract more than a quarter of the world’s groundwater each year to satisfy the drinking water and sanitation needs of almost 18% of world’s population living in its territory.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

(a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I

(b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I

(c) Statement-I is correct but Statement-II is incorrect

(d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct

Answer: (c)