India’s SDGs shows significant progress in Climate Action and Life on Land

New Delhi: India on Friday launched the fourth edition of the sustainable development goal (SDG) India Index 2023-24, claming a significant progress in goals on eliminating poverty, economic growth, climate action and life on land.

The Index was launched by chief executive officer of NITI Aayog BVR Subrahmanyam in the presence of Suman Bery, Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, saying India’s sustainable development goal (SDG) score improved from 66 in 2020-21 to 71 in 2023-24.

SDG India Index is the country’s principal tool for measuring national and subnational progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Among these, Goal 13 (Climate Action) has shown the most substantial improvement, with its score increasing from 54 to 67.

The Index showed the disaster preparedness score as per Disaster Resilience Index stands at 19.20, Improvement in electricity generation from renewable energy from 36.37% in 2020 to 43.28% in 2024, and 94.86% of industries comply with environmental standards.

On the SGD, 15, Life on Earth, the Index mentioned the score increased from 66 in Index 3 (2020-21) to 75 in Index 4 (2023-24). It says the number of States and UTs in front runner category increased from 17 in 2020-21 to 32 in 2023-24.

Nearly 25% geographical area under forests and tree cover – as per India State of Forest Report 2021. and 1.11% increase in carbon stock in forest cover – as per India State of Forest Report 2021.

The index also showed the significant improvement in score of SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) from 39 in 2018 to 83 in 2023-24.

Installed sewage treatment capacity as a percentage of sewage generated in urban areas has increased from 38.86% in 2018 to 51% in 2020-21. The percentage of municipal solid waste processed has increased from 68% in 2020 to 78.46% in 2024.

The index also showed that 97% of wards have 100% door to door waste collection and 90% of wards have 100% source segregation under SBM (U).

The Goal 12, “Responsible Consumption and Production” indicated 91.5% of biomedical waste generated is treated in 2022. It mentioned that 54.99% hazardous waste recycled/utilized of total hazardous waste generated in 2022-23– an increase compared to 44.89% in 2018-19.

The SDG 6 -‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ has showed significant improvement in score from 63 in 2018 to 89 in 2023-24. The Index highlighted that all individual household toilets have been constructed against target and all districts have verified to be ODF under SBM(G).

Around 99.29% of rural households have improved their source of drinking water, whereas 94.7% of schools have functional toilets for girls.

The other key interventions facilitating SDG achievements include over four crore houses under the PM Awas Yojana, and eleven crore Toilets and 2.23 lakh Community Sanitary Complexes in rural areas.

Mr Subrahmanyam also cited ten crore LPG connections under PM Ujjwala Yojana and tap water connections in over 14.9 crore households under Jal Jeevan Mission as initiatives which led to SDG achievements.

SDG India Index measures and tracks national progress of all States and UTs on 113 indicators. It computes goal-wise scores on the 16 SDGs for each State and UT.

These scores range between zero to hundred. If a state or UT achieves a score of 100, it signifies that it has achieved the targets. The Index not only highlights achievements, but also encourages States and UTs to learn from each other to close outcome-based gaps.