Kerala retained the top spot in NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index 2020-21, while Haryana, Mizoram and Uttarakhand had the most improved rankings compared to 2019, according to reports from the government’s think tank Thursday. Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam were the worst performers in this 2020-21 India Index. But what is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index?

The SDG Index assesses the progress of all the states and Union Territories on various criteria such as education, health, gender, climate change, environment, economic growth and institutions. Introduced in 2018, the index became the most important measure for understanding the progress of SDGs in the country. 

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The SDG Index is scored between 0 and 100. The higher the score of a state, the closer they are to the target. The Union Territories and states are divided into four categories on the basis of their score: 0-49 are aspirants, 50-64 are performers, 65-99 are front-runners, and 100 are achievers. As of now, there have been no states in aspirant or achiever categories. 15 states/union territories are currently in the performer category, while 22 states/union territories are in the front-runner category, reported Indian Express.

United Nations (UN) in India is in collaboration with the development of the SGD India Index. “It remains a rare data-driven initiative to rank our states and Union Territories by computing a composite index on the SDGs. We are confident that it will remain a matter of aspiration and emulation and help propel monitoring efforts at the international level”, said Rajiv Kumar, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman told Indian Express.