Millennium to sustainable development goals: a review of India’s progress and challenges

Abstract

Objectives: This paper attempts to review the progress made by India under the Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs) and challenges in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in context to its similarity and divergence from MDG. Methods/Statistical analysis:This paper reviews the performance of India using secondary data as available from the government and other sources. For MDG, Goal wise target and achievement have been studied for India. The post MDG discussion showed maturity and wisdom to have expanded the scope of goals and targets. The new set of goals called Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is socially inclusive and globally exhaustive at the same time. SDG has 17 universally accepted goals which address the current and future concerns of economies. Findings:The available data shows that India has quite successfully achieved few targets and made positive progress in others. But overall most of the countries failed to exhibit considerable progress by 2015 (when MDG were to expire) and thus Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were launched. The paper also concludes that MDG were skewed and highly focused towards human development. But they were realistic, had universal language and were measurable. SDGs are absolutely global and holistic in nature, covering aspects like poverty reduction, inequality, sustainability & economic growth along with job creation. Application/Improvements:The success of SDG will depend upon a less bureaucratic and transparent system of monitoring, evaluation and accountability.