Data Gap Analysis, Indicator Selection and Index Development: A Case for Developing Economies

Concerns of developing countries and the sustainable development goals: case for India

“…It has been observed that the lowincome states in India such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Assam continue to perform poorly in sustainability and development rankings such as NITI Aayog's SDG Index reports of 2018 and 2019, Social Index report by Institute for Competitiveness in 2017, UN HDI ranking among many others. Thus, experts were asked to mark their choices from a predefined list showcasing key reasons for poor performance of low income states in India based on findings of key researches -Ghosh (2012), Kawadia and Philips (2014), Rasul and Sharma (2014), Sharma (2015), Jain et al (2018), World Bank (2018), Ghosh et al (2019) and Khalid et al (2019).…”

“…Few of the experts are highly concerned with the central dominance over several initiatives including SDG implementation when it is a known fact that the state governments have more control and power in areas such as agriculture, public health, police administration among many others. Good coordination between the central and state governments is also crucial because it is the local government which implements all the programs and policies of the central government on ground (Khalid et al 2019). So, a sense of independence and ownership model for local governments is very crucial.…”

“…Among the developing nations, India plays a key role for the adoption and success of the SDGs (Khalid et al 2018) because of its high share of global burden of challenges (Kharas et al 2018) such as extreme inequalities with respect socio-economic and demographic indicators (Saikia and Kulkarni 2017) which has great bearing on the global growth rates. Discussion on India with its huge population in a way strengthens the 'Leave no one behind' agenda of the SDGs (Khalid et al 2019). However, India's current sustainability strategy seems weak and demands more consideration towards social and environmental concerns (Ghosh et al 2019;von Hauff 2019) such as high poverty rates, large undernourished population, increasing gender and income inequality (United Nations Development Programme 2016); large education and health inequalities (Suryanarayana et al 2016); unbalanced urbanization and increase in frequency of droughts and floods (Jain et al 2018).…”

“…However, it was criticised over unclear methodology and majorly being limited to government programme-based indicators. Researchers and institutions have also raised issues over inadequacy and quality of SDG data (Khalid et al 2019;Ghosh et al 2019), lack of funds (Bhamra et al 2015;RIS 2016); weak coordination among the central and regional governments, unclear targets (Khalid et al 2019). Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India's (2019) audit report on preparedness for implementation of SDGs in seven states also highlights several issues such as unaligned roadmaps and milestones of SDG targets, lacking policy and vision documents, unprojected financing and budgeting requirements, delay in finalising monitoring and reporting frameworks, weak public awareness efforts and strategies about SDGs, weak institutional arrangements among many others (CAG 2019).…”

“…, CAG (2019),Khalid et al (2019),Ramanujam et al (2019), NITI Aayog (2019),Janardhanan (2016) Coordination or accountability issues between the central, state, local governments and institutions 42.86 CAG (2019), Khalid et al (2019), Ramanujam et al (2019), UCLG (2019), Lok Sabha Secretariat (2017), RIS (2016) Limited budget for SDG financing 40.48 CAG (2019), Ramanujam et al (2019), UNESCAP (2019), Lok Sabha Secretariat (2017), RIS (2016), Bhamra et al (2015) Differing priorities and concerns of centre and state governments 33.33 Mamgain (2019), Chakradhar and Pisupati (2018), Janardhanan (2016) Inadequate human resource, capabilities and statistical capacity 33.33 Khalid et al (2019), Khan (2019), Ramanujam et al (2019), Chakradhar and Pisupati (2018), NITI Aayog (2018), Saikia and Kulkarni (2017), RIS (2016) Regional disparities existing among the states 30.95 Mamgain (2019), Khalid et al (2019), Ramanujam et al (2019), RIS (2016), Suryanarayana et al (2016) Weak awareness, communication and outreach 26.19 CAG (2019), Chakradhar and Pisupati (2018), Chatterjee (2018), Janardhanan (2016), RIS (2016)…”