India and the Global Goals 2030

Dr B K Mukhopadhyay

(The author is a Professor of Management and Economics, formerly at IIBM (RBI) Guwahati. He can be contacted at m.bibhas@gmail.com)

Dr. Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay

(The author, international award-winning development and management economist, formerly a Gold Medalist in Economics at Gauhati University)

A recent UN report shows that India has slipped down two spots to 117 in 2021 compared to 115 in 2020 on achieving the Global Goals aka the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, hereafter). Several studies correlate this with continuing challenges of hunger and food insecurity (SDG 2), little progress with gender equality (SDG 5), and poor infrastructure and sustainable/green industrialization (SDG 9) despite talks of smart and inclusive cities in national and international forums. Currently, our SDG score is 61.9 of 100, which by the way is below Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

A) Understanding the Global Goals aka SDGs.

The SDGs or Global Goals were first proposed at the 2012 Rio+20 conference when UN member states passed a resolution on "the future we want" prioritizing poverty elimination, water and sanitation, green energy, and other themes which would eventually make it into the SDGs. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, hereafter) or Global Goals could be perceived as a comprehensive and equally inclusive effort to date to formulate the steps which must be taken to fulfil this tripartite vision of how resources should be used to build prosperous, durable, inclusive, and low-impact societies. By the time the SDGs were unanimously ratified at the 2015 session of the UN General Assembly, they had grown into a template for countries and societies, regardless of their diversity and varied needs, to meet the challenge of building an inclusive, prosperous, and environmentally realistic future. It was adopted by 193 United Nations member states in 2015 (the deadline year for the MDGs- Millennium Development Goals).

As a framework, the SDGs managed to extend the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many ways, while also strategically linking the social, economic, and environmental aspects of goals. This in turn implies linking across time ensuring that the short-term achievement of improved human well-being does not occur at the cost of undermining wellbeing in the long term by damaging the underpinning social and environmental capital. Where progress in social indicators is made, it often comes at an environmental cost. Inter-linkages across different goals will be a challenging area, and the inherent trade-offs and complexity of such an effort require that related policies be informed by a science of sustainability.

Since the concept has evolved after initially been defined by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, the underlying theme of 'sustainable development has been dominantly about transcending from intra-generational to inter-generational equity. Several schools of thought from leading thinktanks and international organizations also gave newer definitions of sustainability from time to time, both tactical and strategic ones. One of the central ideas that pervaded in most studies, however, is ideally we need to stop borrowing unreasonably from tomorrow. The resources that form the basis of human livelihood and well-being are found in the form of various capitals required for operationalizing economies across the world.

B) Why it matters for India to achieve the Global Goals 2030?

At the High-Level Political Forum 2020 "Accelerated Action and Transformative Pathways: Realizing the Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development", NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Rajiv Kumar said the SDGs are more important than ever before. The Modi government promoted "competitive federalism" among States through its "Make in India" initiative, with the apparent objective to improve the nation's rank in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). Equally important, India currently ranks 4th in the renewable energy country attractiveness index. Fortunately, due to the increasing forms of institutional arrangements, public-private, and public-private-people partnerships amongst others have boosted the scale and use of renewable energy technology in rural areas.

While the country continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and projects realistic goals for the years to follow, starting with the precarious situation that is to immediately follow once the pandemic subsequently slows down its spread. Achieving the SDGs is essential for restoring the post-COVID Indian economy because this could enable conditions for businesses to flourish. This is because these goals are essential, one could argue, interlinked with different types of capital.

It is also important to maintain our BRICS status, while some of our neighbours are fast restoring their economic growth and charting ambitious national and international goals. The SDGs, in addition, fundamentally boosts the potentially available capital that upgrades both input and output market conditions.

C) How the Global Goals aka SDGs can support the ambitions of 'New India'?

In India, the identifiable financial gap in implementing the SDGs has always been colossal, which is further accentuated by the continual economic losses from the current pandemic. During these extraordinary circumstances, crowding in the private sector and support (both financial and strategic cooperation-wise) from the Multilateral Development Banks are seen as key instruments to realize the sustainability goals – at the priority ones at the moment, without losing the progress before COVID-19 times.

Inadvertently, when we look at how some of the goals have been achieved in countries similar to India, it is a strong connection between the global goals and businesses. While the SDGs can be achieved with the help of businesses, it is equally important to recognise that SDGs also drive businesses at various levels. It may not be a 'win-win' at all times, but surely strategic.

Further, on how SDGs also help businesses in return, we can identify a large number of cases where there has been first, a fall in the long-term environment, political and social risks for businesses. Secondly, how transparent governance helps in coping and mitigating sustainability risks and impacts. Thirdly, SDGs enable different forms of institutional arrangements, mainly partnerships between public and private actors leading to substantive improvement of market resilience and competitiveness. Fourthly, to fit the zeitgeist of times and also acknowledging the emergence of social enterprise, or commercially viable enterprises running with a social motif – there are new business opportunities that are aligned with the SDGs.

Also, to note, how research, industry, and government bodies or actors have changed the way they partner and collaborate. This has been a reflective period when India is beginning to reconvene meetings to look towards regional groupings such as BIMSTEC, SAARC and ASEAN for issue-based objectives, an achievement of the SDGs – to boost the economic self-sufficiency. At this juncture, the main point is that the developed block, to serve their interests should see that the laggards are coming up. They get the market. They park the fund. They get the places to bolster international business ventures.

D) The Global Goals are not just about achieving numbers.

The lack of clear guidance on policy changes or how the goals ought to be achieved were some of the often-reported challenges to the implementation of MDGs. Local leadership and governance also equally have to step up, and for that, a clear set of values and goals have to be shared. 'Glocal' actions are those that consider both local and global factors and variables. Individual, societal, businesses, and SDGs need to align more. Still, one of the significant barriers is to tackle the challenge of policy coherence by addressing the current contradictions between economic, trade and investment policies with the 2030 Agenda and human rights policies.

Studies also claim that the developing world cannot sustainably achieve the same living standards as the developed counterparts, also the fact the latter should substantially reduce resource use as the planet doesn't have enough to maintain the highest quality of life for everyone. To, for example, achieve life goals that look beyond basic needs for everyone- universally high levels of life satisfaction would require between two and six times the sustainable level of resource use. These will inadvertently affect the planet's safe space and resource boundaries. So, regardless of the big promises around the UN global goals, there are practical impediments and serious trade-offs when it comes to development choices and pathways.

In conclusion, it is implicit from various research studies conducted by both public and private thinktanks and international organizations that we start taking note of the inter-dependence between the SDGs and business. This consequently has immense implications in terms of local action and national policy to cope with the economic ruins from the pandemic. SDGs would not only promote new business opportunities, but more importantly, they would also help in sustaining a conducive investment climate in the country. Capacity building is important to the success of the SDGs and its goal is to provide the long-term foundation for transformation. It requires training and education in systems approaches to solutions, trans-disciplinary initiatives, and code signs. What is required is a new generation and category of sustainability professionals who can broker between global, national, and local issues. The task ahead of monitoring or evaluating the indicators for measuring progress cannot be underestimated. It will require the availability of the data, the quality of the data and the capacity to measure them. For India, Integrating SDGs in the national development agenda will also have immense implications for contemporary India's flagship 'Make-in-India' Programme and 'Atmanirbar Bharat Abhiyan'