Shimla Tops NITI's 1st Sustainable Development Goal Index, Dhanbad Worst Among 56 Cities

Shimla city secured the top position in NITI Aayog's first Sustainable Development Goals Urban Index. Jharkhand's Dhanbad was worst in the list of 56 cities.

The report was released on Tuesday, November 23, and has been jointly developed by NITI, Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and German development agency GIZ. The report will be released in the coming month.

According to the Hindustan Times report, the policy think tank analysed urban local bodies (ULBs) of the cities on 77 SDG indicators, such as eliminating poverty, women empowerment, providing quality education, economic growth, gender equality, etc.

The agency aimed to localise SDGs at the city level, ensure efficient monitoring, and push cities towards data-driven decision-making.

Apart from Shimla, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Pune, Panaji, Ahmedabad, Nagpur were at the top of the list for having achieved its goals.

Cities like Dhanbad, Meerut, Patna, Jodhpur, Kohima, Itanagar, Guwahati, Kolkatta Faridabad, etc., lagged in meeting their goals, with Dhanbad being the worst performer. The cities at the bottom have scores below 60.

Of the entire cities, 44 have over one million of population, while the rest have less than a million.

"Cities are fast becoming engines of growth. The index will institute a robust SDG monitoring system in our cities and is a milestone step in our SDG localisation journey," the media quoted NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar, as saying.

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