What are SDGs?

•  These are a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. 
• These were adopted at the Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015 by the UN Member States
• Also known as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

What are Voluntary NAational Reviews?

• As part of its follow-up and review mechanisms, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encourages member states to "conduct regular and inclusive reviews of progress at the national and sub-national levels, which are country-led and country-driven"
• The voluntary national reviews (VNRs) aim to facilitate the sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.  

VNR is designed by

• NITI AAYOG

Nationally Determined Contributions

• India has ambitiously committed to reducing the emissions intensity per unit of GDP by 33% -35% by 2030 relative to its 2005 levels.
• Create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes through additional tree cover.

Past Poverty Reduction

• Rapid growth (SDG 8) is the key weapon in any country’s arsenal to combat poverty.
• It creates well-paid jobs, which place necessary purchasing power in the hands of households to access food, clothing, housing, education and health.
• It brings ever-rising revenues to the government to finance social spending.

REFORMS BY GOVERNMENT

• The reforms have included fiscal consolidation, inflation targeting, improved governance all around, accelerated infrastructure development (SDG 9), curbing of corruption (SDG 16), Aadhaar Act (for providing unique identity), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act, Goods and Services Tax, further liberalization of foreign direct investment and closure of sick units in the public sector.
•  Impact: India is the fastest growing major economy in the world. It grew 7.5% during fiscal year 2014-15, 8% during 2015-16 and 7.1 % during 2016-17. 

ANTI POVERTY PROGRAMES FOR ACHIEVING GOAL NO 1

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNREGA)

• provides a legal guarantee of a minimum of 100 days of wage employment per household every year for unskilled workers in rural areas

IMPACT

• The program generated over 2 billion person-days of employment (SDG 8) during the last year.
•  Women and disadvantaged groups have been the largest beneficiaries (SDG 5 and SDG 10) of the program accounting for 56% and 39% of person-days of work generated during last year. 

Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

• For ensuring access to the entire gamut of financial services, including banking, credit, Insurance and pension.

IMPACT 

• 280 million new accounts with deposits amounting to INR 639 billion (USD 9.9 billion).
• Direct delivering of Government benefits into the accounts of beneficiaries and minimising leakages
• Enhanced the effectiveness of several social security schemes in the county

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana

• Also referred to as the National Livelihoods Mission
• Creating skilled employment for the poor.
• The Mission aims to bring one female member each from a large number of poor households in rural areas into Self-Help Groups in a phased manner.

 Strengthening Social Safety Nets

National Social Assistance Programme

• Provides pension to the elderly, widows and differently-abled individuals.
• 3 initiatives have been launched to facilitate access to life insurance, personal  accident insurance as well as pension for workers in the unorganised sector.
• Insurance schemes have collectively reached out to 130 million subscribers.

 Ensuring Access to Basic Services

National Health Mission

• A broad spectrum of interventions focused on universalising primary healthcare is being implemented

Integrated Child Development Services

(ICDS)

• Attempts to ensure that maternal and child malnutrition are addressed in a systematic manner.

Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)

• provides conditional cash transfers to promote institutional deliveries among women from remote areas.

National Education Mission

• focused on providing universal access to education, bridging gender-related inequities and improving the learning outcomes of students

Right to Education Act

• established an effective legal framework entitling all children (6-14 years) to free and compulsory education based on principles of equity and nondiscrimination.

Housing for All by 2022.

• Assistance (e.g. in the form of credit-linked interest subsidies) is provided to poor households for constructing houses.
• An estimated 5 million houses will be built during the current year for the poor in rural areas.

National Food Security Act

•  5 kg wheat or rice per person per month at subsidised prices.
• A related initiative provides the poorest households 35 kg of the subsidized wheat or rice every month.
• provides a basic quantity of food grains to nearly 75% of the population in rural areas and 50% of the population in urban areas at affordable prices under the Targeted Public Distribution System.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

• 50 million Liquefied Petroleum Gas connections will be provided to poor families over the next 3 years.
• Over 22 million connections have already been provided under the scheme.

National Rural Drinking Water Programme

• more than 77.5% of habitations have been covered with 40 litres of drinking water supply per capita per day

Swachh

Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission)

• Over 39.5 million household toilets have been built during the previous two and half years.
• 193,000 villages and 531 cities have been successful in ending the practice of open defecation.

Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Programme

• 70% of the targeted rural habitations have been connected by all-weather roads thus far
• By March, 2019, all habitations of 500 population or larger will be connected by all-weather roads 

Promoting Resilience against Disasters

• 85% of the country’s land is vulnerable to natural disasters (India Disaster Knowledge Network), which affect the poor disproportionately.
• As mandated under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, there is a comprehensive National Policy on Disaster Management (2009), which articulates a proactive prevention and mitigation approach.
• The National Disaster Management Plan, 2016 focuses on disaster resilience and integrates the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction as well as the SDGs. 

Access to Nutritious Food

• India’s food security programmes are among the largest in the world and cover more than 800 million people in the country by providing affordable access to grains.
• Since women pay greater attention to food security, the ration card is issued in the name of the senior most female member of the household.

IMPACT

• Nearly 232 million ration cards entitling people to food and other supplies have been digitized.
• 77% of the ration cards have been linked to the unique identity number thereby enabling cash transfers for promoting dietary diversity.
• Nearly 20 out of the 29 states in India have automated the supply chains and Fair Price Shops (delivery outlets).
•  An online grievance redressal system has also been operationalized across the country. 

Sustainable and Adaptive Agriculture

• India is the largest producer of milk, pulses and spices in the world.
• It also has the largest area under cultivation for rice and cotton.
• Approximately 55% of India’s croplands are rain-fed and it has vast coastal lands under agriculture.
• Food production in the country is therefore vulnerable to climate change

National Mission on Sustainable

Agriculture (NMSA)

• Collaboration with other Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, is striving towards mitigating the impact of climate change and sustaining agricultural productivity.
• Under NMSA, Soil Health Cards are being issued to farmers for providing crop-wise nutrient management recommendations and enabling them improve soil fertility as well as crop productivity.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana

• Target of covering 50% of the total cropped area in the country during 2016-19, 30% has already been accomplished.
• 652 Agricultural Technology Management Agencies have been established across the country for disseminating the latest technologies to farmers. 

R & D

• The Central Soil Salinity Research Institute has successfully developed and deployed customized salt-tolerant varieties in major crops like rice, wheat and mustard.

Agricultural Productivity and Farmers’ Income

• Small and marginal farmers constitute nearly 80% and over 90% of them are engaged in rain-fed agriculture.
• Several states in India have made progress with respect to revising their land leasing Acts along the lines of a Model Act developed by NITI Aayog.
• The Model Act is aimed at protecting the rights of the tenant while also ensuring that the landowner does not run the risk of losing the ownership of her land to the tenant.
•  The average productivity of fruits and vegetables has increased by 42.3% and 52.8%, respectively, on account of crop spacing, judicious use of water and other inputs. 

National

Agricultural Marketing

• Nearly 250 wholesale agricultural markets across 10 states have been integrated with the electronic National Agricultural Marketing Platform.

• The country’s strategy in health is focused on providing essential services to the entire population, with a special emphasis on the poor and vulnerable groups.

National Health Policy

2017

Improving the health status of women and children

• ‘India New-born Action Plan’ for achieving the targets outlined in the global ‘Every New-born Action Plan’ by 2030, five years before the global deadline.

Use of Tech

• ANMOL (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives Online) is a tablet-based application launched by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for enabling Auxiliary Nurse Midwives to electronically enter and update data for beneficiaries in their jurisdictions
• ASHA Soft - An Online Monitoring & Payment System A web-based software has been launched in the state of Rajasthan with the objective of ensuring timely and transparent payments to community health workers.
• The government has also launched a mobile health initiative, mDiabetes, for relating awareness about the illness. 

 Preventing Communicable Diseases

National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme

• Prevention and control of six diseases has been prioritized, including Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Chikungunya, Kala-Azar and Lymphatic Filariasis.

TB

• National Strategic Plan with the objective of eliminating TB by 2025
• A new medication, Bedaquiline, has also been launched for tackling drug-resistant TB.

Reducing the Burden of Non-Communicable

Diseases

• A National Non- Communicable Diseases Cell has been established along with 36 and 318 Cells at the state and district levels Respectively.
• As heart diseases affect a large number of people in the country, the government has taken steps to ensure the availability of coronary stents at affordable prices.
• Further, the National Dialysis Services Programme has been launched for patients with renal diseases
• Recognizing the significant burden of mental health issues, the Indian Parliament has recently passed the Mental Healthcare Bill, which decriminalizes suicide and protects the property rights of patients. 

Ensuring access to basic health facilities for all

• The National Health Mission provides flexible financing to state governments for improving infrastructure facilities at the district and sub-district levels.
• The Mission was allocated INR 267 billion (USD 4 billion) in 2017-18 making it one of the largest centrally sponsored schemes of the Government of India

Index for Spurring Improvements

• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and NITI Aayog are spearheading the Health Index initiative.
• The Index has been developed to monitor state-level performance on various health indicators.

Addressing discrimination against women

• The Government of India has implemented several legislations and welfare schemes to curb the practice of female feticide and sex-selective abortion.

Beti Bachao Beti

Padhao

•  Catalyzing a change in mind set as well as protecting and educating the girl child.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

• A study on Gender and Livelihoods Impacts of Clean Cook Stoves in South Asia reveals that Indian women spend approximately 374 hours every year collecting firewood.
• This amount of time could otherwise be spent in education or productive work.
• Scheme is for providing clean cooking fuel in the form of Liquefied Petroleum Gas connections. 

Increasing access to employment

• A report released by the Labour Bureau reveals that Female Labour Force Participation Rate in India was as low as 23.7% in 2015-16.

Strengthening Social Protection and Security

•  One Stop Crisis Centres are being established across the country for providing integrated support to women affected by violence, in private and public spaces.

Building Resilient Infrastructure

• A total of 8,231 km of national highways has been constructed during 2016-17. Thus far, 70% of targeted rural habitations without road connectivity have been connected with all-weather roads.
• Development of 37 national waterways is planned over the next three years. Result in reduction of overall logistics related costs and environmental impact.
• A total length of 8,000 km of pavements and cycle tracks will also be laid in 106 cities over the course of the next 5 years to promote non-motorized transport and reduce the carbon footprint.
• Investment target of INR 25 trillion (USD 390 billion) for infrastructure development over a period of three years (2016-19). Efforts are also being made to mobilize additional resources.
• The Indian Railways is setting up an INR 350 billion (USD 5.5 billion) Railways of India Development Fund to serve as an institutional mechanism for raising funds from the market. 

 Strengthening the Manufacturing Sector

National Manufacturing Policy

•  The Policy has raised the targeted output from 16% of GDP to 25% by 2025 along with creation of 100 million jobs.

National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs)

• Eight NIMZs have been approved along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and three are being set up in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha.
• Clean technologies are being promoted by providing appropriate incentives. For instance, buildings that obtain a green rating qualify for an incentive grant of INR 200,000 

small and medium enterprises

• The measures include tax relief, preferential access to bank finance and greater access to venture capital options

MUDRA

• Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency)
• Provides easy credit to small-scale business entrepreneurs.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

• Increase in the FDI limit to 100% with 49% under the automatic route in defence as well as 100% FDI under the government approval route for trading. 

Overcoming the Digital Divide and Leveraging ICT

• Aadhaar, now covers more than 90% of the country’s population.
• DBT has transformed service delivery in a majority of government programmes with a cumulative disbursement of INR 1.6 trillion (USD 25 billion) to 329 million beneficiaries.
• Bharat Broadband Network Ltd Initiative aims to provide high-speed broadband connectivity to 2,47,864 villages or clusters thereof in the country. 

Strengthening Capabilities in Science, Technology & Innovation

• India is among leading countries of the world in the domain of scientific research and among the top five in space exploration.
• In recent years, significant breakthroughs have been achieved in the area of Information Communication Technology applications as well as e-governance. These include Aadhaar, DBT and decision support mechanisms based on Geographic Information Systems. 

Atal Innovation Mission

• Aims to transform the innovation and entrepreneurship landscape in the country.
•  More than 500 Tinkering Laboratories are being set up in schools across the country.
• These Labs aim to facilitate the holistic development of students by providing them the space to experiment and put their ideas into practice

India Innovation Index

• Framework has been launched for tracking and identifying promising innovations in the country.

Mangroves and Coral Reefs

• The Sundarbans mangroves, located in the Bay of Bengal, were the first in the world to be put under scientific management.
• There has been a net increase of 112 square km in the mangrove cover of the country as compared to the previous assessment.

Mangroves for the Future

• Being coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
• Four major coral reefs have also been identified in the country for intensive conservation and management.
• India has 25 Marine Protected Areas in the peninsular region and 106 in islands, collectively covering approximately 10,000 square km of the country’s geographical areas. 

Ensuring Sustainability of Fisheries

• India has the highest population of fishing communities globally.
• Some of the measures include establishment of a Potential Fishing Zone Advisory programme, modernization and upgradation of fishing centres as well as banning of mechanized fishing in certain areas. 

Blue Revolution

• A detailed Integrated National Fisheries Action Plan, 2016 has also been formulated. The plan envisages connecting 15 million beneficiaries for livelihood opportunities through various interventions.

Protection of Coastal Ecosystems

• India has also ratified numerous international conventions related to the use of oceans and their resources, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
• An online mechanism for predicting the movement of oil spills, the Online Oil Spill Advisory System, was launched in 2015.
• The revised National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan, 2015 reflects the important national regulations as well as the current international norms.
• Levels of marine pollution are being monitored by the government at various locations along the country’s coastline through the Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System.

Holistic Development of

Islands and Coastal Areas

• In 2016, the Prime Minister of India launched a flagship programme, Sagarmala, for promoting port connectivity, development and industrialization, in a phased manner during 2015 to 2025.
• Coastal tourism is also being promoted under the programme for enabling access to better livelihood opportunities 

Financing the SDGs in India and Status of Official Development Assistance (ODA) Globally

• While working towards revitalising the global partnership for the achievement of the SDGs, India reaffirms the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
• The developed countries have an essential obligation to provide financial assistance to the developing countries, especially for global public goods such as climate change mitigation and control of pandemics, so that they can fully achieve the SDGs.
• India also highlights the need for international cooperation for curbing illicit financial flows, defining aid unambiguously and establishing robust systems for monitoring commitments made by donor countries. 

Improving Taxation Capacity and Compliance

• The tax-GDP ratio in India is significantly lower than the average for the BRICS countries
• An innovative tax like  the Swachh Bharat Cess (Clean India Cess) has also been levied for mobilizing resources for the Clean India Mission.
• Implementation of the budget responsibility legislation is ensuring predictable and sustainable budgeting as well as long-term debt sustainability 

Black Money

• Developing countries lose nearly USD 1 trillion every year on account of illicit financial flows (black money generated through money laundering and adverse practices in financial transactions like under or over invoicing).
• International tax havens and tax evasion make it very difficult for countries to mobilize the resources domestically.
• India has on several occasions highlighted the scale of revenue loss in developing countries on account of profit shifting practices of multinationals (transfer pricing).
• The modest achievement for India (hailed as significant in diplomatic circles) has been to introduce new modalities in the constitution of the UN promoted international tax committee (Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters under the Economic and Social Council of the UN). 

Strengthening Sub-National Governments

• The states and local bodies will be at the frontline of operationalizing the SDG strategy in India.
• The Fourteenth Finance Commission increased the share of tax devolution to states from 32% to 42% of the divisible pool.
• In addition, special purpose grants to secure universal primary education, health, employment, affordable housing, and urbanization provide a solid collaborative fiduciary basis for securing the SDGs.
• In addition, the Centre also supplements Local Body finances by providing them with appropriate fiscal space. 

Enhancing Efficiency of Expenditures

• The introduction of sunset clauses for all public expenditure programmes will allow the government to divest itself from unproductive “legacy” expenditures and deploy the freed resources towards programmes that will contribute to securing the SDGs.
• A comprehensive public financial management system is now operational that allows the government to track expenditure flows to end objectives in real time, thereby contributing to increased effectiveness in public expenditure management. 

Establishing Strong Partnerships with the Private Sector

• India has had one of the largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programmes globally.
• The government has embarked on a comprehensive set of reforms to attract FDI, including opening up key sectors like defence and railways to such investment.

Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) for SDGs

• The Addis Ababa Action Agenda established a new mechanism for making technologies available to developing countries for implementing the SDGs known as TFM.
• India, through its submissions, has highlighted that urgent delivery of technology development, deployment, dissemination and transfer to developing countries requires a suitable response.