Achieving sustainable development goals through Fourth Industrial Revolution: An Indian perspective

Abstract

Purpose: Today’s world is technology driven. With the emergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is of utmost importance to harness the power of technology for the collective good of more than a billion people living in India. The paper aims to explore the status of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) in India and how Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies can be utilized for fulfillment of these goals. Methodology: A detailed systematic review of research papers, articles, reports, and book has been done to explore the aspects of Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development at global and India level. Findings: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has offered countries opportunity to build a more inclusive and sustainable society through technology. Moreover, for a country like India, where still domains defined in UN SDGs are not digitized fully, Fourth Industrial Revolution may provide solution to the problems. Poverty, hunger, inequality, and digital exclusion can be redressed, lead to sustainable development, and provided prompt digitization is preceded. Implications: The paper provides a deep insight into Fourth Industrial Revolution and sustainable development in context of India and how bringing both aspects together can revolutionize the Indian economy. The paper also discusses challenges which further lay for country. The paper points out the various modern technology solutions which can facilitate in achieving UN SDGs. Originality: The paper is first to explore the potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution technology in achievement of UN SDG, hence facilitating India’ aim to achieve UN SDGs by 2030.