An assessment of the performance of different districts towards Sustainable Development targets in India

Sustainable development goals encapsulates 17 broad-based goals and 169 associated targets to reconcile among the three pillars of sustainability i.e. social, economic and environmental. In the present study, we sought to understand the performance of 641 districts ofIndiaon social, economic and environmental parameters and on the composite sustainability index as a whole. Our results suggest that there is a large regional variations in performance with districts of southern and western states outperforming northern and eastern states on sustainability index. There is a strong congruence between social and economic indicators. However, environment is still missing from the policy planning. Our results may provide a benchmark and help in micro-level planning at district level and may help in raising public and policy support, realignment and reorientation of the existing policy from the perspective of SDGs