Economic Survey 2017 -18 - volume II - chapter 5 key points
There
are 17 SDGs which have 169 targets to be achieved by 2030.
Voluntary National Reviews:
India
is one of the countries that has volunteered to take part in the Voluntary
National Reviews (VNRs) at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2017.
India
presented its 1st
VNR on implementation of SDGs on 19th July, 2017 in the
HLPF at United Nations, New York.
The
VNR report is based on an analysis of progress under various programmes and
initiatives in the country.
The
VNR report focused on 7 SDGs:
1 (No
Poverty); 2 (Zero Hunger); 3 (Good Health and Well-Being); 5 (Gender Equality);
9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 14 (Life below Water) and 17
(Partnerships for the Goals).
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In the
light of the global SDG indicators endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission,
the draft national SDG indicators are being developed by Ministry of Statistics
& Programme Implementation with inputs from Central Ministries and various
other stakeholders and are now at an advanced stage of finalization.
Going
forward, a monitoring and reporting system will be set up to regularly take
stock of the implementation process and generate credible information and
evidence on progress of the SDGs with the base year as 2016.
The
National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog’s role will be to
collect, validate and document best practices in implementation of SDGs for
wider dissemination.
On a
regular basis, progress on SDGs will be tracked through an integrated
dashboard.
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Urban India and Sustainable
Development
According
to World Economic and Social Survey, 2013, achieving the sustainability
of cities entails integration of four pillars –
a. social
development,
b. economic
development,
c. environmental
management, and
d. effective
urban governance.
According
to the UN World Cities Report 2016, by 2030, India is expected to be
home to seven mega-cities with population above 10 million.
According
to Census 2011, 377.1 million Indians comprising 31.16 per cent of the
country’s population live in urban areas.
India’s
urban population is projected to grow to about 600 million by 2031.
Government
of India has undertaken several measures to improve sustainability of cities,
which include the
·
Smart Cities Mission,
·
National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy (2007),
·
Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), and
·
management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) etc.
In
July, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) notified a new
regulatory framework - Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalities
Regulations - for issuing municipal
bonds in India. The new regulations allowed for municipal bodies or a
corporate municipal entity to issue municipal bonds through private placement
or public issue.
Acess to Sustainable Energy
Government
of India had launched “Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana” (PMUY) in May,
2016 and upgraded it to provide 80 million LPG connections by 2020 to BPL
households.
Complementing
the above scheme, Government has come out with other initiatives namely “Ujjwala
Plus” which will address the cooking needs of deprived people who are not
covered under the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011.
The Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) scheme was launched in 2015 to
achieve 100 per cent village electrification and Saubhagya scheme
launched on 25th September,
2017, to provide energy access to all by last mile connectivity and electricity
connections to all remaining un-electrified households in rural and urban areas
to achieve universal household electrification in the country.
Buildings Energy Efficiency Programme was launched in May, 2017 which is
being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).
Under
this scheme, EESL is likely to retrofit about one crore LED lights, 15 lakh
energy efficient ceiling fans, and 1.5 lakh energy efficient ACs in more than
10,000 government and private buildings by the year 2020.
International
Solar Alliance (ISA):
ISA,
which was launched by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and
Mr. François Hollande, former President of France on 30th November, 2015 in Paris,
entered into force on 6th
December, 2017.
With
ISA Framework agreement entry into force, ISA has become a de jure treaty-based
International Intergovernmental Organization.
ISA is
the first International intergovernmental treaty-based organization
headquartered in India (Gurugram, Haryana).
As on
date, 46 countries have signed and out of these, 19 countries have ratified the
ISA Framework Agreement.
ISA is
a coalition of solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between
the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and aims to specifically address energy
needs by harnessing solar energy.
Government
of India has made a provision of `100 crore as one-time fund for ISA
Fund corpus.
On the
request of the ISA, the Government of India has earmarked around US $ 2 billion
Line of Credit (LoC) to the African countries for implementation of solar and
related projects out of its total US $ 10 billion LoC under the Indian
Development and Economic Assistance Scheme.
Presently ISA has three programmes
a. Scaling Solar Applications for Agricultural
Use,
b. Affordable Finance at Scale and
c. Scaling Solar Mini-grids.
The United Nations including its organs are
ISA’s strategic partners. ISA is also developing “Common Risk Mitigating
Mechanism” (CRMM) for de-risking and reducing the financial cost of solar
projects.
Government
of Haryana has agreed to institute Kalpana Chawla Solar Award for the women
Solar Scientists doing extraordinary work across the 121 ISA prospective member
countries.
India and Climate Change
Government
of India is implementing the National Action Plan on Climate Change, which
includes eight national missions covering
1. solar,
2. energy
efficiency,
3. agriculture,
4. water,
5. sustainable
habitat,
6. forestry,
7. Himalayan
ecosystem and
8.
Strategic knowledge on climate change, apart from various other initiatives.
As
part of the mission on strategic knowledge on climate change, India has
established 8 Global Technology Watch
Groups in the areas of
a.Renewable
Energy Technology,
b.
Advance Coal Technology,
c.
Enhanced Energy Efficiency,
d.
Green Forest,
e.
Sustainable Habitat,
f.
Water,
g.
Sustainable Agriculture and
h.
Manufacturing.
Climate
Change Action Programme, launched in 2014 with an objective of building and
supporting capacity at central & state levels, strengthening scientific
& analytical capacity for climate
change assessment, establishing appropriate institutional framework and
implementing climate related actions has been extended for the period 2017-18
to 2019-20 with a budget outlay of Rs.132.4 crore.
National
Adaptation Fund on Climate Change established in 2015 to support
concrete adaptation activities which are not covered under on-going activities
through the schemes of State and Central Government, continues till 31st March 2020 with
financial implication of Rs. 364 crore.
Zero
Effect, Zero Defect
is a policy initiative to enhance energy efficiency and resources efficiency in
Medium & Small Industries.
In
February, 2017, India launched the world’s first interoperable Quick
Response (QR) code acceptance
solution. It is a sticker pasted on the teller counter wall of the merchant and
can be generated dynamically on merchant itself, removing the need to even
print.
The
Global Climate Risk Index 2018 has put India amongst the six most
vulnerable countries in the world.
The
Fifteenth Finance Commission Terms of Reference outlined climate change as an
important aspect for consideration.