Aathira Perinchery 
New Delhi/Palakkad: On July 12, the NITI Aayog released the SDG India Index 2023-24 report. The Index scores India, and each of its states and union territories, on their progress to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) listed by the United Nations.
The goals, adopted in 2015, are meant to place countries and their peoples onto sustainable and resilient paths of development in times of climate change and other challenges.
According to the latest SDG India Index report, India – overall, as a country – has improved in its actions taken towards achieving its SDGs, and so has every state and union territory too. As per the report, climate action is among the goals that India is doing particularly well at achieving.
However, several moves by the union government – including diluting crucial legislations that protect the environment – suggest that the NITI Aayog’s 2024 report on SDG progress may in fact be contradictory in many aspects.
UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all members of the United Nations in 2015, is “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity” that all member countries have to implement. It includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals: goals – such as ‘No Poverty’ – toward which all member countries should work towards.
Of the 17, at least seven pertain directly to the environment, climate and natural resources. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 refers to actions taken to attain clean water and sanitation; SDG 7 is “affordable and clean energy”; SDG 11 is sustainable cities and communities; SDG 12 encompasses actions taken towards driving responsible consumption and production; SDGs 14 and 15 refer to protecting and conserving lifeforms living in water and on land respectively; and SDG 13 to climate action.
The 169 targets that all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals encompass range across three pillars of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.
Since 2018, India has released the SDG India Index, which scores India and each of its states and union territories on their progress to achieve SDGs. The latest 2023-24 report released by the NITI Aayog on July 12 is the fourth edition of its kind, and tracked the progress of all States and UTs based on 70 targets and 113 indicators.
It computed goal-wise scores on the 16 SDGs for each State and Union Territory, which were then used to generate Overall State and UT scores or Composite Scores. These scores ranged from 0 to 100: the higher the score, the closer it is to its target. The report also listed the goal-wise “key programmes and initiatives” undertaken by the Government of India to achieve the SDGs.
The SDG India Index 2023-24
According to the SDG India Index 2023-24 report, India has improved greatly when it comes to actions taken towards achieving SDGs. The overall SDG score for the country is 71 for 2023-24, a rise from 66 in 2020-21 and 57 in 2018. As per the report, India has made “significant” progress in Goal 1 (No Poverty), Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), Goal 13 (Climate Action) and Goal 15 (Life on Land).
The report says that, Goal 13 (Climate Action) has recorded the highest increase in score from 54 in 2020-21 to 67 in 2023-24. It adds that, there are “significant affirmative developments since 2018” in Goals 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 7 (Affordable and Clean energy) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). These three goals are also among the 11 that are driving a “positive push” along with Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action) and Goal 15 (Life on Land) where India has scored between 65 and 99.
Across states, the SDG India Index 2023-24 scores range from 57 to 79, while for UTs they range between 65 and 77. As per the report, this is an improvement over the 2020-21 scores, where States ranged from 25 to 75, and UTs ranged from 62 to 79. With a score of 79 each, both Kerala and Uttarakhand are at the top spot when it comes to achieving SDGs.
New states that are front runners include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
“Key” programmes and initiatives
The latest report also lists goal-wise “key programmes and initiatives” undertaken by the union government to achieve the SDGs.
For instance, under SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) are listed the Smart Cities Mission, and the many MRTS and Metro Projects being undertaken in cities. Under SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) comes a series of schemes, projects and initiatives: the SAUBHAGYA scheme, PM Ujjwala Scheme, Rooftop Solar Programme, Green Energy Corridors (GEC), Bio-Energy Programme, National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, the National Solar Mission, and more.
Actions taken by India to further SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) include the Lifestyle for Environment (LIFE) programme, the National Policy on Biofuels, National Clean India Fund and others. Under Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) the Swachh Bharat Mission is listed , along with the Jal Jeevan Mission, Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain, the National River Conservation Programme and the Namami Gange project.
But while these programmes count as actions towards achieving these SDGs, many of these initiatives are still trailing; some have glaring loopholes and drawbacks. For instance, the union government has spent Rs. 40,000 crores on the Namami Gange project since 2014 to clean up the river Ganga. But the river still runs dark, and dirty. Several concerns – including dysfunctional sewage treatment plants and bad governance – abound, as The Wire reported.
Some projects undertaken as part of enabling India’s SDGs also affect local and indigenous communities negatively instead of helping them – a measure of how unsustainable the actions really are. The NITI Aayog itself, for instance, is pushing for a series of infrastructure projects in the Great Nicobar Island worth Rs. 72,000 crores, including an international container transshipment terminal.
The projects will involve the displacement of people belonging to the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal communities (anthropologists have termed it equal to “genocide”), the loss of beaches where endangered Olive Ridley turtles and endemic Nicobar megapodes nest, the destruction of around 20,000 coral colonies, and the deforestation of 130 square kilometres of rainforest. The latter will also generate a huge amount of carbon emissions: exactly what India hopes to not do as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions as it has submitted to the UN.
More conflicts and contradictions
The projects in the Great Nicobar Island are definitely not people- or climate-friendly, despite the compensatory afforestation that the Indian government plans to implement across around 40 square kilometres in Haryana, 2,400 kilometres away.
Compensatory afforestation (under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, CAMPA) is, ironically, one of the actions listed by the latest SDG India Index report 2023-24 under efforts to achieve SDG 13, Climate Action.
Under this Goal also come activities taken up under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (this Mission is also listed under Goal 2, No Hunger), the National Water Mission, the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem and the National Clean Air Programme.
The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched in 2019, aimed to take measures to reduce 20 to 30 percent particulate pollution by 2024 (later this was increased to 40 percent by 2026). As many as 131 cities are missing the 2024 target despite Rs. 9,650 crores being pumped into the effort so far, as per one report.
Along with the Blue Revolution (or the Neel Kranti Mission) and the Sagarmala Project, the interlinking of rivers is among the actions listed under Goal 14, for actions taken to conserve “Life Below Water”. Incidentally, the NITI Aayog press release claims that this Goal “has not been included in the calculation of the Composite Score for the Index as it solely pertains to the nine coastal States”.
However, the Goal does not just apply to India’s coastal states alone. For instance, the first river interlinking that is already planned in India is the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project. It aims to connect the Ken and Betwa rivers along the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh borders; these rivers later merge with the River Ganga.
So ideally, the detrimental impacts of linking these two rivers – such as the submergence of 9,000 hectares of land (of which around 5,000 hectares are in the core zone of the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh) – can have ramifications for Goal 13, Climate Action.
Additionally, several tribal communities in the area too will be displaced. These impacts will occur in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh – which have zero coastline. So “Life Under Water” and the impacts of the river interlinking project should have also been considered while calculating India’s Composite Score.
Again, a Rs. 3,600 crore infrastructure plan is in the works for the Lakshadweep islands, under the Sagarmala Scheme. The scheme, which involves developing ports, and other linked infrastructure in several coastal towns and cities, may end up damaging Lakshadweep and its environs, as opposed to the NITI Aayog report’s claim that it will protect “Life under Water” as part of SDG 14 here.
Experts, including social scientists and marine biologists have repeatedly raised concerns about the banes of developing unplanned tourism in the Lakshadweep Islands, which already face issues such as freshwater availability and sea-level rise due to climate change.
Green impacts of other goals
Additionally, many schemes being undertaken as part of other goals also have ramifications for those pertaining to the environment and climate change. For instance, listed in Table 1.1 in the NITI Aayog report under Goal 1 (No Poverty) is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The MGNREGS programme – which ensures employment of at least 100 days a year for a person from a single rural household – has implications for water conservation (when the scheme pays for people in rural areas to dig, renovate or clean ponds, lakes and reservoirs, for example), forest cover, climate resilience and more.
However, the MGNREGS is ailing. The union government in its last budget decreased the funds sanctioned for the scheme. It allocated only Rs 60,000 crore for 2023-24, which is 18% lower than the budget estimates for 2022-23 (Rs. 73,000 crore), and 33% lower than the Rs. 89,000-crore revised estimates for the year.
To make matters worse, payments to workers under the programme in many regions and states are still pending. In October 2022, an official told The Telegraph that West Bengal had incurred around Rs. 3,000 crore as wage dues under the scheme.
The Bharatmala Project – that aims to build greenfield road corridors across the country – listed under Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) comes with a lot of environmental concerns. In Karnataka, 31,860 trees are expected to be felled for the 114-kilometer that will pass through 94 villages across three districts (Hassan, Tumkur and Chikmagalur).
Up north in Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, nearly 8,000 trees will be axed for the construction of the controlled-access Greenfield Shamli-Ambala highway under the same Bharatmala Pariyojana project.
Some of the most damaging to the country’s environment are possibly the “Ease of doing business” initiatives listed under Goal 9. In India’s hurry to push forward ‘ease of doing business’ and promote building more infrastructure in a short period of time, the union environment ministry has made amendments to several existing legislations, diluting their powers.
For instance, the changes brought about to the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 in 2020 and 2021 enabled a single window portal system for all forest and environmental clearances. The new draft notifications specified a minimum period of only 20 days of notice period (versus 30 days before) for the public to respond to projects being implemented in their areas, and reduced the time for the completion of public hearing from 45 to 40 days.
Interestingly, in May this year, the Supreme Court – hearing a petition against the “single window” clearance system – temporarily stayed the construction of a 90-acre hotel and township project in the Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand.
World is failing to deliver on goals: UN report
India may claim to be doing well, but the annual SDG report card published by the United Nations on June 28, paints a grim picture. It warned that the world is failing to deliver on its promise of the Sustainable Development Goals. Only 17 percent of the SDG targets are currently on track, and only nearly half show minimal or moderate progress. Over one-third are stalled or regressing. Among the factors that have hindered progress are the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions.
“This report highlights the urgent need for stronger and more effective international cooperation to maximize progress starting now,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a press release. “With more than six years left, we must not let up on our 2030 promise to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind.”
One of the urgent priorities that the report lists is peace and security. As per the report, the number of forcibly displaced people has reached an unprecedented level: nearly 120 million, by May 2024. Civilian casualties spiked by 72 percent between 2022 and 2023 amid escalating violence, highlighting the urgent need for peace.
For perspective, India has its own share of people displaced due to conflict. As per a report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre published in May this year, Manipur in India’s northeast accounted for 67,000 out of the 69,000 South Asians displaced in 2023.
India’s actions towards sustainable development still leave much to be desired, as even the recent NITI Aayog report admits, albeit in passing – including in the fields of curbing pollution:
“Despite India’s remarkable achievements, there are many areas that need greater emphasis…In addition, there are emerging health concerns such as non-communicable diseases and high levels of air, water and waste pollution. Further, increased emphasis is required on high-quality data, providing the correct information on the critical concerns at an appropriate time to inform designing, financing, monitoring and evaluating policies,” the 2024 report mentions in passing.
India’s climate action is “highly insufficient”
For instance, though the latest SDG India Index report 2023-24 claims that India has done very well when it comes to climate action, as per the Climate Action Tracker, India has not. The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) is an independent scientific project that tracks government climate action, measuring it against the aims of the Paris Agreement to limit warming to below 2°C and 1.5°C. The CAT tracks 39 countries and the European Union, thus covering around 85% of global emissions.
India’s overall rating as of December 4, 2023, is rated as “Highly Insufficient”.
“The CAT rates India’s climate targets and policies as “Highly Insufficient”, indicating that India’s climate policies and commitments are not consistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature limit,” the Tracker says. “India’s second NDC strengthened its targets on paper, but will not drive real world emission reductions beyond its current level of climate action. Its emissions intensity target is “Insufficient” when compared to India’s fair share contribution.”
India’s 2023 rating remains the same (“Highly Insufficient”) since 2021, when it dropped from a “2°C compatible” level in 2020.