Bhubaneswar: Niti Aayog on Thursday released the third edition of the SDG India Index 2020–21, which is developed, in collaboration with the United Nations India, to track the progress of all states and Union territories (UT) towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
While Kerala has retained the top rank, Bihar has been adjudged as the worst performer, as per a report released.
Kerala retained its rank as the top state with a score of 75. Both Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu took the second spot with a score of 74.
Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam were the worst performing States in this year’s India index.
Similarly, Odisha has placed 19th position with a score of 61.
The SDG India Index 2020–21 is more robust than the previous editions on account of wider coverage of targets and indicators with greater alignment with the NIF. The 115 indicators incorporate16 out of 17 SDGs, with a qualitative assessment on Goal 17, and cover 70 SDG targets. This is an improvement over the 2018–19 and 2019–20 editions of the index, which had utilised 62 indicators across 39 targets and 13 Goals, and 100 indicators across 54 targets and 16 Goals, respectively.
The SDG India Index computes goal-wise scores on the 16 SDGs for each State and Union Territory. Overall State and UT scores are generated from goal-wise scores to measure aggregate performance of the sub-national unit based on its performance across the 16 SDGs. These scores range between 0–100, and if a State/UT achieves a score of 100, it signifies it has achieved the 2030 targets. The higher the score of a State/UT, the greater the distance to target achieved.
States and Union Territories are classified as below based on their SDG India Index score:
Aspirant: 0–49
Performer: 50–64
Front-Runner: 65–99
Achiever: 100
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.
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.
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).
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