India ranks 112th among 166 countries, only above Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia, based on its performance in 2023 towards achieving the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goals, a report released on Wednesday says. The State of India’s Environment 2024 report, published by the think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), is based on the United Nations-backed Sustainable Development Report 2023, where the rankings appear. India has done poorly on “sustainable cities”, “equality”, “clean water and sanitation” and “peace, justice and strong institutions”. The UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — 17 in all — in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty and protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 everyone enjoys peace and prosperity. India’s score of 63.45 per cent in 2023 marks a small improvement over the previous year’s 60.3 per cent.

Source: The Telegraph March 02, 2024 00:15 UTC