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Sustainable Development and Climate Change 197

In 2021, India continued exercising significant climate leadership at the international
stage under the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Coalition for Disaster Resilient
Infrastructure (CDRI) and Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT Group).
The chapter also discusses several initiatives taken in the area of sustainable finance by
the Ministry of Finance, RBI and SEBI.

INDIA’S PROGRESS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

6.1 In September 2015, 193 countries including India committed to the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) as detailed in the UN resolution, “Transforming our world: the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The SDGs comprehensively cover social, economic and
environmental dimensions and build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which
covered the earlier fifteen-year period from 2000 to 2015.

6.2 India has been making strides towards achieving the social, economic and environmental
goals covered under SDGs. This achievement gains further significance in the face of the
considerable human and economic costs imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has set
countries back on their developmental goals and created serious impediments to the attainment
of the SDGs, the world over.

Goal wise performance of India as a whole: NITI Aayog SDG India Index Report
and Dashboard 2020-21

6.3 India’s overall score on the NITI Aayog SDG India Index & Dashboard improved to 66
in 2020-21 from 60 in 2019-20 and 57 in 2018-19, showing progress in India’s journey towards
achieving the SDGs (see Box 1 for details about the NITI Aayog SDG India Index). Despite
2020-21 being a pandemic year, India performed well on eight of the 15 SDGs measured by
the NITI Aayog SDG India Index. These included – goal 3 (good health and well-being), goal 6
(clean water and sanitation), goal 7 (affordable and clean energy), goal 10 (reduced inequalities),
goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities), goal 12 (responsible consumption and production),
goal 15 (life on land) and goal 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions).

Box 1: NITI Aayog SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020-21

India’s federal structure implies that states must take charge to enable progress on achieving the
country’s SDGs. The NITI Aayog SDG India Index is the world’s first government-led sub-national
measure of SDG progress. It has been developed to capture the progress of all states and union
territories (UTs) in their journey towards achieving the SDGs. This index recognizes that action
is required at all levels, and it is therefore based on the approach of cooperative and competitive
federalism.