New Delhi: A total of 85 per cent of districts across eight northeastern states have been categorised as front runners by the NITI Aayog for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).
This share of North East districts has increased to 85 per cent in 2023-24, up from 62 per cent in 2021-22, as per NITI Aayog’s data.
A district is categorised as a front-runner once it achieves a score between 65 and 99 in the SDG index. Those achieving a score between 50 and 64.9 fall in the performer category.
A total of 121 out of 131 districts (92 per cent) were covered in this survey.
Two Mizoram districts – Hnahthial with an 81.4 score and Champhal with a 79.8 score topped the SDG Index list.
Three states of Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura had all districts scoring in the front-runner category.
The list included 16 districts of Arunachal Pradesh, 31 districts of Assam, 12 districts of Manipur, 10 districts of Meghalaya, 11 districts of Mizoram, nine districts of Nagaland, six districts of Sikkim and eight districts of Tripura.
There were noticeable improvements in most SDG categories. However, three categories witnessed a decline from 2021-22.
These included SDG-7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG-10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG-12 (responsible consumption and production).
The index is a first-of-its-kind progress tracking tool for the Northeastern region. It provides a granular district-level assessment of progress made on the 17 SDGs.
