Assam has emerged as a top performer in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 2023-24 released by NITI Aayog recently. According to the data, the Northeast Indian state has improved its overall score by 8 points since the 2020-21 edition.
Assam has consistently improved its score since 2018 by 16 points. Weighing in on the development, the state's Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that Assam was the first step to adopt the Sustainable Development Goal agenda of the government, initiated by the federal government in 2016.
"The first assessment was released in 2018", Biswa Sarma recalled. "Then Assam was in the aspirant category. In 2019, the state reached the performer category. It was the same in 2020." Notably, the assessments were not done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notably, Assam's SDG score is the same as the national score: 71. Now, the state has set a target of crossing the national average within two years, according to Biswa Sarma. "It takes at least 10 years of sustainable efforts to achieve such a score", he said.
NITI Aayog stated that 10 new states have progressed from performer to front-runner category in the latest rankings. In total, there are 32 states and union territories.
Between 2018-2024, certain states are fast-moving as per the Aayog. These states are UP, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Tripura, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
"We have reduced multidimensional poverty in these years and headcount has decreased from 36 to 19 percent”, Biswa Sarma said, adding that the state's flagship 'Orunodoi' scheme is the "biggest contributor" in the fight against poverty.
“We did well in gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth (16 percent), industry, infrastructure and innovation, sustainable cities, life on land”, said Biswa Sarma, adding this year's survey would yield even better results.
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