Niti Ayog today unveiled the SDG(Sustainable Development Goals Index for India) Index. The Index, was developed in collaboration with the United Nations, to measure the progress at the national and sub-national level in the country's journey towards meeting the global goals.This was First launched in December 2018, with an aim to be a primary tool for monitoring progress, evaluate States' performance on social, economic and environmental parameters in the country and simultaneously foster competition among the states by ranking them on the global goals.
The Index tracks the progress of all the States and Union Territories (UTs) on a set of National Indicators, measuring their progress on the outcomes of the interventions and schemes of the Government of India. The SDG India Index is intended to provide a holistic view on the social, economic and environmental status of the country and its States and UTs.
The overall aim is to measure India and its States’ progress towards the SDGs for 2030.
The scoring is from 0-100 implying that any state which is closer to 100 means it is on target and will achieve its goals that have been set on various parameters ; poverty, hunger, sanitation, affordable and clean energy etc will be achieved by 2030.
Once again Kerala retains its top ranks. It is followed by Himachal Pradesh and TN scoring 75 and 74 points respectively, Andhra is third scoring 72 points. Bihar as expected occupies the last position.
Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam were the worst-performing states this year with 52, 56, and 57 points, respectively. UP, MP, Odisha, Bengal, are just round this figure. In the previous Part ; Vicious circle of misgovernance it was mentioned that these above states may have entered a Vicious circle of misgovernance and as a result despite coming to power on the agenda of Growth their Govts have not been able to get the state out of this vicious circle of Misgovernance even after ruling for more than a decade.No wonder, once the cream has migrated, these states Bihar, UP, Rajasthan MP, Bengal, Assam scoring about 50- 60 points are stuck in mediocrity and the elections are still fought on the issues like caste/ religion, freebies/ subsidies etc rather than on Growth and Development.
The score is not only an indicator of misgovernance but may also show that these states are stuck in a vicious circle of Misgovernance.
The concern is if more than half the states are scoring around 50-60 points and have a Governance issue then the impact of Pandemic is likely to be severe and they may push back India’s growth.
