SDG INDEX 2024 (Syllabus: GS Paper 2/3 – Governance/Economy)

Context: NITI Aayog has released its fourth evaluation report assessing India's progress on the 16 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDG India Index 2023-24

• About: The SDG India Index 2023-24, in its fourth edition, serves as India’s primary tool for assessing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Released by: NITI Aayog, the Index was launched in collaboration with UNDP, emphasizing its comprehensive national and subnational coverage.
• Measurement Framework: The Index tracks progress across India's States and Union Territories (UTs) on 113 indicators aligned with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s National Indicator Framework (NIF).
• Composite Scores: Ranging from 0 to 100, aggregate goal-wise scores to provide an overall performance assessment for each State and UT.
• Significance of Scores: A score of 100 indicates that a State/UT has achieved all SDG targets, with higher scores reflecting greater progress towards these goals.

Key Findings

• India SDG Score: The country's overall SDG score has risen to 71 for 2023-24, up from 66 in 2020-21 and 57 in 2018.
• State-specific Scores: State scores range from 57 to 79 in 2023-24, indicating substantial progress from the 2018 range of 42 to 69.
• Progress in Key Goals: Notable advancements in Goals 1 (No Poverty), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 13 (Climate Action), and 15 (Life on Land).
• Goal-specific Improvements: Goal 13 (Climate Action) showed the highest increase, from 54 in 2020-21 to 67 in 2023-24, followed by Goal 1 (No Poverty) from 60 to 72.
• State Categorization: 32 States and UTs are in the front-runner category, with 10 new entrants including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• Fastest Moving States: Between 2018 and 2023-24, Uttar Pradesh saw the highest score increase by 25 points, followed by Jammu & Kashmir (21), Uttarakhand (19), Sikkim (18), Haryana (17), Assam, Tripura, and Punjab (16 each), and Madhya Pradesh and Odisha (15 each).