4 February 2015: The Government of India and the UN Country Team have assessed India’s progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the end of 2015. The assessment reported substantial progress, but indicated that inequalities have risen. Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), launched the publication and noted the urgency of switching to more sustainable development paths, insisting that “growing first and clean up later” is no longer an option.

‘India and the MDGs: Towards a Sustainable Future for All’ shows that India is close to achieving targets on halving poverty, achieving gender parity in school enrollment, halving hunger, reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters, controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, increasing forest cover, and halving the proportion of population without access to clean drinking water. However, the country lags behind on primary school completion rates, youth literacy, access to adequate sanitation, women’s involvement in wage employment and political participation, and reduction in child and infant mortality.

ESCAP reports that almost 300 million people still live in extreme poverty in India.

Akhtar highlighted policy recommendations to address these gaps, including: “a new sustainable agriculture-based green revolution in India;” access to modern and renewable energy sources; incentives to create “wealth out of waste;” and a focus on sustainable urbanization, building on India’s 100 Smart Cities proposal. With regard to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs,) she added that India is home to one-sixth of the world’s population, and “the world is not going to achieve the SDGs, if India does not.” [Publication: India and the MDGs: Towards a Sustainable Future for All] [ESCAP Press Release]