Daily Current Affairs for 31st December 2019

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Kerala leads race for UN development goals

Paper: GS II

Topic: Important Aspects of Governance, Transparency and accountability, Government Policies and Interventions.

For Prelims: UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), NITI Aayog’s SDG Index.

For Mains: Important International Institutions, Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation of Government.

In the News: Kerala leads race for UN development goals, Bihar at bottom of NITI Aayog list.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  • The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.
  • The SDGs, set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assemblyand intended to be achieved by the year 2030, are part of UN Resolution 70/1, the 2030 Agenda.
  • The goals are broad-based and interdependent.
  • The 17 sustainable development goals each have a list of targets which are measuredwith indicators.
  • In an effort to make the SDGs successful, data on the 17 goals has been made available in an easily-understood form.
  • A variety of tools exist to track and visualize progress towards the goals.

NITI Aayog Releases SDG India Index and Dashboard 2019

  • India is the first country in the world with a government-led, sub-national measure of progress on Sustainable Development Goals.
  • NITI Aayog has the twin mandate to oversee the implementation of SDGs in the country and promote competitive and cooperative federalism among States and UTs.
  • The SDG India Index acts as a bridge between these mandates, aligning the SDGs with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s clarion call of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, which embodies the five Ps of the global SDG movement: people, planet, prosperity, partnership and peace.

The SDG India Index:

  • The world is now in the fifth year of the SDG era. India’s National Development Agenda is mirrored in the SDGs. India’s progress in the global Goals is crucial for the world as the country is home to about one-sixth of the world’s population.
  • The SDG India Index 2019 is more robust than the first edition on account of wider coverage of goals, targets, and indicators with greater alignment with the NIF.
  • The Index spans 16 out of 17 SDGs with a qualitative assessment on Goal 17.
  • This marks an improvement over the 2018 Index, which covered only 13 goals.
  • The UN has developed 232 indicators to measure compliance by member nations.
  • The NITI Aayog has adapted the monitoring approach to the Indian context, with 100 indicators of its own for the Index.
  • NITI Aayog released the second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index, which comprehensively documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.
    • The SDG India Index 2019 tracks the progress of all States and UTs on 100 indicators drawn from the MoSPI’s National Indicator Framework (NIF).
    • The process of selection of these indicators included multiple consultations with Union ministries/departments and States/UTs.
    • It has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI),
    • United Nations in India,
    • And Global Green Growth Institute.

Benefits associated with the SDG India Index:

  • It has cross-sectoral relevance across policy, civil society, business, and academia.
  • The Index is designed to function as a tool for focused policy dialogue, formulation and implementation, and moving towards development action pegged to globally recognizable metrics.
  • The Index also supplements NITI Aayog’s continuous efforts to encourage evidence-based policymaking by supporting States/UTs to benchmark their progress, identifying priority areas and sharing best practices.
  • The SDG India Index 2019 will also help highlight crucial gaps related to monitoring SDGs and the need for improving statistical systems at the National/State/UT levels.
  • Further, the Index highlights the need for improvements in data collection, reporting, and methodology.
  • NITI Aayog is also exploring partnerships for disaggregating data and developing capacity for real-time monitoring and measuring incremental progress.

Result of the Index

  • Among the 16 SDGs, marine ecosystems are for coastal states only, and scores on this one were not counted in the composite total.
  • In the other SDGs, the best performers were
    • Tamil Nadu for no poverty.
    • Goa for zero hunger.
    • Kerala for good health.
    • Himachal Pradesh for quality education.
    • Himachal again for gender equality.
    • Andhra Pradesh for clean water and sanitation.
    • Sikkim for affordable and clean energy.
    • Telangana for decent work & economic growth.
    • Gujarat for industry, innovation and infrastructure.
    • Telangana for reduced inequalities.
    • Goa for sustainable cities and communities.
    • Nagaland for sustainable consumption and production.
    • Karnataka for climate action.
    • Manipur for life and land.
    • Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for peace, justice, strong institutions.
  • India’s composite score has improved from 57 in 2018 to 60 in 2019, thereby showing noticeable progress.
  • Ending hunger and achieving gender equality are the areas where most States fall far short, with the all-India scores at a dismal 35 and 42 points respectively.
  • On the other hand, the NITI Aayog has given India an overall score of 60 points, the maximum gains been made in Goals 6 (clean water and sanitation), 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) and 7 (affordable and clean energy).
  • All three states that were in the ‘Aspirant’ category (with score/s in the range of 0–49)
    • Uttar Pradesh,
    • Bihar and
    • Assam
    • These states have graduated to the ‘Performer’ category (50–64).
  • Five states—Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Goa, and Sikkim—moved up from the ‘Performer’ category to the ‘Front Runner’ category (65–99).
  • Composite SDG Index with a score of 70:
    • Kerala achieved the first rank in the composite SDG Index with a score of 70,
    • Followed by Himachal Pradesh at 69.
    • Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu ranked at the third position with a score of 67.
  • The biggest improvers since 2018 are
    • UP (which has moved from the 29th position to the 23rd),
    • Orissa (23rd to 15th),
    • And Sikkim (15th to 7th).
    • While Bihar improved its score from 48 in 2018 to 50 in 2019, it still has a long way to go in achieving the targets.
  • Additionally, this year, the SDG India Index report has a new section on profiles of all 37 States and UTs, which will be very useful to analyse their performance on all goals in a lucid manner.

Classification criteria based on SDG India Index score is as follows:

Aspirant: 0–49

Performer: 50–64

Front Runner: 65–99

Achiever: 100

Conclusion

  • NITI Aayog has committed itself to building capacities and monitoring progress at the state level. Close coordination with the states over the next 5 years will further accelerate SDG localization and ensure greater improvement.
  • In 2020, the world enters the final decade for achieving the SDGs the ‘Decade for Action’. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have indicated that 12 years left to save the planet from the worst effects of climate change. So, the time to act is now.
  • The SDG India Index 2.0 and the dashboard enables India to both track and encourage accelerated progress to meet the SDGs across all its States and Union Territories.

Prelims Question

With reference to the SDG India Index consider the following statements:

  1. This Index spans 16 out of 17 SDGs with a qualitative assessment, which comprehensively documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.
  2. It is published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

             Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 Only

(b) 2 Only

(c)  Both 1 and 2

(d) None of the above

Answer: A

Explanation:

Why statement 1 is correct:  The second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index, which comprehensively documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets. The SDG India Index 2019 tracks the progress of all States and UTs on 100 indicators drawn from the MoSPI’s National Indicator Framework (NIF).

Why statement 2 is incorrect: The SDG India is published by NITI Aayog, not by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

This Index has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), United Nations in India, and the Global Green Growth Institute.

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