Millennium to the sustainable development goals: Changes and pathways for India

Abstract

AbstractMillennium development goals have remained the overarching development framework to achieve a set of important eight goals worldwide. The goals with measurable and time bound objectives express widespread public concern about poverty, hunger, disease, unmet schooling, gender inequality, and environmental degradation. Under changing climatic scenario and other environmental illness, there is a widespread understanding that worldwide environmental objectives need a higher profile alongside the poverty‐reduction objectives. Consequently, in September 2015, the Heads of State and Government agreed to set the world on a path toward sustainable development through the adoption of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” which includes 17 sustainable development goals, with 169 targets comprising social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development—all to be achieved by 2030. The goals provide a framework for shared action “for people, planet, and prosperity,” to be implemented by “all countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership.” The paper documents and the pathways to ensure a sustainable future as well as dignified life for all people of India and means to mobilize scientific, technological, and social movements to address the challenges ahead.