Assessing India's Sustainable Development Goals Progress: An Analysis of Performance, Measurement, and Alignment with Viksit Bharat 2047
Abstract: India's engagement with the 2030 Agenda has produced one of the most elaborate subnational monitoring architectures in the developing world. Yet, the analytical relationship between measured SDG performance and the country's long-horizon development aspiration, Viksit Bharat 2047, remains under-theorised. This paper undertakes a three-part assessment. First, it interrogates the measurement apparatus itself, identifying six structural limitations - indicator substitution across editions, data vintage lags, ceiling effects and index saturation, equal-weight aggregation, the "averaging out" of distributional deficits, and the divergence between domestic and international scoring -that together inflate apparent convergence toward the Goals. Third, it constructs an alignment assessment between SDG outcomes and the 2047 vision, arguing that the binding constraints on Viksit Bharat lie precisely in the goals where India's measured performance is weakest: SDG 2 on course to approach the saturation ceiling well before 2047, rendering it unfit as a metric for the 2047 horizon. It concludes with proposals for a successor measurement framework - disaggregated, distribution-sensitive, stock-and-flow differentiated, and anchored in a "Viksit Bharat Indicator Framework" that extends beyond 2030 targets to high-income-economy benchmarks.
Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals; SDG India Index; composite indicators; Viksit Bharat 2047
How to Cite?: Dr. Rajeev Kumar, "Assessing India's Sustainable Development Goals Progress: An Analysis of Performance, Measurement, and Alignment with Viksit Bharat 2047", Volume 15 Issue 10, October 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 897-905, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR261013201754, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR261013201754