Editors’ Note

The 2030 Development Agenda—universal, ambitious, and transformative—matters now more than ever. The agenda, reflected in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is the only framework underpinned by a global consensus on the imperatives of ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that no one is left behind.

Home to one-sixth of humanity, India is key to the achievement of the SDGs. Its successes, or otherwise failures, directly impact the global achievement of the goals. The country’s role as a Global South leader offers innovative, and scalable models for developing countries to adopt as part of their own strategies. These ideas have shaped Global Goals, Indian Vision: The Last Mile to 2030, the sixth publication in a series released annually on India Day @ UNGA by Reliance Foundation, Observer Research Foundation, and the UN in India. The book traces India’s journey thus far, and underlines why these last five years to the Agenda 2030 deadline are critical. It unpacks the three levers of progress, or the 3Ps—partnerships, people, and platforms—and offers a vision for the post-2030 development agenda.

The opening chapter reviews the approach that India has taken over the decade 2015–25, examining its key policies, programmes, and institutional frameworks. The authors spotlight Indian innovations like women-led development and Mission LiFE, presenting a nuanced perspective of India’s progress so far, marked by strides in access and inclusion although tempered by persistent systemic constraints.

The second chapter tracks India’s progress on the SDGs, as outlined in the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) it submits periodically to the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. In July this year, India presented its third VNR, which showed steep poverty reduction and rapid social protection expansion covering 940 million people. At the same time, it flagged gaps in women’s workforce participation, job creation for the youth, and data quality. The VNRs reflect India’s growing leadership in the global SDGs movement.

The subsequent chapters dive into the 3Ps. The third chapter explores how philanthropic foundations and multi-stakeholder partnerships in India are building progress towards the SDGs, brick-by-brick. It highlights the strategic shift in Indian philanthropy—from traditional grant-making to catalytic funding—that is enabling scalable solutions across sectors. It examines how collaborations between private foundations, corporations, governments, and civil society are collectively advancing the SDGs.

India has long embraced collective action for driving change. The fourth chapter examines how the country, which has the largest self-help movement and cooperative movement in the world, has enabled social transformation and more inclusive and participatory rural development. These collectives have empowered women, reduced poverty, and fostered decentralised community-led transformation through capacity-building and knowledge-sharing.

The fifth chapter explores platforms and technology as an effective lever. It brings out the integration of AI, digital public goods, and open-source solutions with legacy systems to accelerate SDG progress. The focus is on three kinds of interventions—tech for financial inclusion; domain-specific applications in edtech, healthtech and agritech; and tech for social protection—to develop a framework for the smarter use of tech-for-dev in the age of AI.

For the three chapters on partnerships, collectives, and technology, interviews were conducted with stakeholders across the domains of civil society, philanthropy, business, and government. These field-level insights, enriched by secondary data from government, academic, and media sources, reveal both the opportunities and challenges in scaling sustainable development models.

The final chapter begins by outlining the global climate in which India’s SDGs journey is powering ahead. It explores the principles underlying India’s domestic development story, and provides a template that could be adapted elsewhere in the Global South. It then turns to the core features of India’s development cooperation with other nations, and its vision of a collective, empathetic approach. The chapter closes with a reflection on the potential building blocks for development leadership in the post-2030 era.

Read the monograph here.

Anirban Sarma is Director, Centre for Digital Societies, Observer Research Foundation.

Sunaina Kumar is Director, Centre for New Economic Diplomacy, Observer Research Foundation.

Vanita Sharma is Advisor, Strategic Initiatives, Reliance Foundation.

All views and opinions expressed in this volume are solely the authors’, and do not reflect those of the organisations they are affiliated with.

• International Affairs
• Developing and Emerging Economies
• India
• 2030 development agenda
• india day unga
• sdg 2030
• sustainable development agenda 2030
• Sustainable Development Goals

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