India lags in nine of the 16 United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the State of States report launched on February 27, 2025, at the ongoing Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2025.
All 36 Indian states and Union territories (UTs) have achieved at least half of the target in only four of the 15 SDGs, as per the report by Rajit Sengupta, Associate Editor, Down To Earth (DTE) and Kiran Pandey, Programme Director, Environmental Resources, Centre for Science and Environment.
These are SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). SDG 14 (Life Below Water) has been excluded as it applies only to coastal states.
“As the world’s most populous nation, home to over 1.4 billion people, India’s progress on SDGs matters not just for itself, but for the planet. India lags behind the global average in nine out of 16 SDGs,” said Pandey.
The report provided several other insights.
For instance, India’s SDG framework has gaps, with key indicators missing across several goals. “Under SDG 1 (No Poverty), the indicator for eradicating extreme poverty has been removed in the recent government assessment in 2023-24. SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) has no measure directly capturing water quality.”
There is more. Two global indicators—carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion per total electricity output and the share of renewable energy in total final energy consumption—are not included in SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy).
SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) does not include parameters on air quality and public transport. “SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) has no measure for electronic waste. SDG 14 (Life Below Water) has five indicators, but three do not have 2030 targets, making progress tracking difficult,” added the report.
There are also data gaps in assessments.
For instance, India currently tracks 108 indicators for its nine coastal states and 106 indicators for the remaining states and UTs. However, data gaps persist in key areas, as per the report.
For SDG 14 (Life Below Water), data is not available for coastal UTs such as Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. Under SDG 15 (Life on Land), data for the indicator measuring the percentage of area covered under afforestation schemes is missing for 13 out of 36 states and UTs.
“In SDG 13 (Climate action), data on the number of human lives lost per 10 million population due to extreme weather events is unavailable for 11 states and Union territories,” said Sengupta.
All 36 states and UTs face challenges across key SDG indicators. According to the report, challenges persist in one out of every six indicators in Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu, despite these states having the fewest lagging indicators (with scores below 50) under the SDGs.
Sixteen states and UTs, including populous Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, have met less than half of the target in 30-43 per cent of SDG indicators.
The report is based on three data sources:
India’s global standing is derived from the “Sustainable Development Report 2024”, published by Dublin University
India’s state-wise performance is based on “SDG Index 2023-24”, released by NITI Aayog in July 2024
Projected population data has been sourced from the “Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections 2011-2036”, published in July 2020 by the National Commission on Population, under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
As per the authors, the insights from the report shows the challenges and successes in India’s path to 2030. The question now is: Can the country accelerate its progress and bridge the gaps in time?
The State of States report is available here.