Guwahati News Desk: Guwahati has been placed in the bottom seven in the latest list of Niti Aayog’s Urban Index Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
However, cities like Shimla, Coimbatore and Chandigarh have topped the Niti Aayog’s first SDG Urban India Index, while cities like Dhanbad, Meerut and Itanagar are the worst performers, according to the report which was released on Tuesday.
According to the list, Shimla secured the first rank with a score of 76, followed by Coimbatore with 73, Thiruvananthapuram (72.36), Chandigarh (72.36) and Kochi (72.29).
On the contrary, the worst performers are Dhanbad with 52, Meerut (55), Itanagar (55) and Patna (57).
Notably, the Guwahati with 55.79 has been placed in the bottom seven in the sustainable development list.
As per the score list set by the Niti Aayog, cities scoring between 65 and 99 are fall under ‘front runner’, cities with 50-64 are called ‘performers’ and cities scoring below 50 are called ‘aspirants.
The SDG Urban Index and Dashboard ranks 56 urban areas on 77 SDG indicators across 46 targets of the SDG framework. The data on these indicators is sourced from official data sources such as NFHS, NCRB, U-DISE, data portals of various ministries, and other government data sources.
Out of 56 urban areas ranked in the index, 44 are with population of above one million. 12 are State capitals with population of less than a million.
”The index and dashboard are a result of the NITI Aayog-GIZ and BMZ collaboration focused on driving SDG localization in cities, under the umbrella of Indo-German Development Cooperation,” an official statement said.
Launching the index, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog had said, “Cities are fast becoming engines of growth. The SDG Urban index and dashboard, a product of innovative partnership between NITI Aayog and GIZ, will go a long way in instituting a robust SDG monitoring system in our cities, and is a milestone step in our SDG localisation journey”.
The statement further said that the index and dashboard will further strengthen SDG localization and institute robust SDG monitoring at the city level.
”It highlights the strengths and gaps of ULB-level data, monitoring, and reporting systems,” it added.
