NITI Aayog asks Arunachal Pradesh to improve Sustainable Development Goals ranking

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ITANAGAR: NITI Aayog Advisor Sanyukta Samaddar has asked Arunachal Pradesh to work on improving the composite score concerning Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) India Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

The composite score of Arunachal Pradesh has improved from 53 to 60 during the last fiscal but the state needs to work on its overall ranking to be at par with the national average, Samaddar said in a two-day workshop, which began here Monday. The workshop is being organized by the state's Finance, Planning and Investment Department in collaboration with NITI Aayog.

Leading the NITI Aayog team, Samaddar presented the details on the SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020-21, an official communique informed here on Tuesday.

Samaddar highlighted the report card and the performance at the national level and sub-national level for the officials concerned to take note for improving the performance. She said the implementation of SDG is not due to the international requirement but the country's commitment to the world.

"Hence, every state government is committed to aligning their development agenda with these goals," she said while presenting the findings of MPI, where Arunachal Pradesh is ranked 18th out of 28 states with an MPI score of 0.108, a headcount ratio of 24.39% and an intensity of poverty at 44.22%.

Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, who chaired the workshop, thanked NITI Aayog for deputing a team of officers for the workshop and emphasised improving the performance of schemes under important sectors like health, education, drinking water and rural connectivity, the communiqué said.

Mein also highlighted the problems faced by the people living in remote border areas and asked for NITI Aayog's intervention in developing the border areas. The deputy chief minister appreciated the important role being played by NITI Aayog in helping the states in implementing and monitoring the SDGs and assured all cooperation from the state government to achieve the goals in a time-bound manner.

State Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, taking note of the respective performances of various indicators, expressed concern regarding the shortcoming in the implementation of certain schemes and called upon the departments concerned to improve the last-mile delivery and provide the latest and precise data so that the same is reflected in the MIS portals of the ministries concerned.

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