A book on SDGs and South-South Cooperation released by CEO, Niti Aayog 

Indian Observer Post

New Delhi, Nov 11, 2018: “SDGs are a set of universal goals that India has played an important role in shaping at the global level in partnership with nation states and also with the UN. We are committed to implementing these goals by enhancing our partnerships, improving on key development and human indices through a collaborative mechanism both regionally and globally. Our engagement with the Global South is of key consideration and we are deeply involved in feeling it further. Role of India in achieving the Goals will be crucial internationally and we are committed to it,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog in Delhi on 9^th of Nov. 2018.

He was addressing an international conference on the theme of “Leaving no one behind: Sustainable Development Goals & South-South Cooperation” organized by Dainik Bhaskar, one of India’s leading Hindi dailies in collaboration with the NITI Aayog, government of India’s think tank, and the Dialogue of Civilizations (DOC) Research Institute, an independent international think tank.

Sustainable Development Goals and South-South Co-operation is the core subject of the stimulating and thought-provoking book that Dainik Bhaskar has published in collaboration with the NITI Aayog, the government of India’s think tank, and the Dialogue of Civilizations (DOC) Research Institute, an independent international think tank.

With a foreword from NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant, the book contains articles from thought leaders from the fields of the establishment, diplomacy, private sector, civil society, international agencies, think tanks, media and academic institutions around the subject of ‘SDGs and South-South Cooperation’.

Edited by Deepak Dwivedi, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Dainik Bhaskar and Pooran C. Pandey, founding CEO of DOC Research Institute, the book was released by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog at India International Centre on November 9^th.

The volume begins with ‘special messages’ from Dr Vladimir Yakunin, Chairman of the DOC Research Institute, Kenyan High Commissioner to India, Willy Kipkorir Bett, India’s representative to UNESCO Executive Board, Dr J. S. Rajput and other dignitaries.

These are followed by three articles from Suchitra Durai, India’s current High Commissioner to Kenya, Siddharth Chatterjee the United Nations Development Programme Representative in Kenya, and Amitabh Kant that set the context.

Eminent contributors of other articles include Dr Bindeshwari Pathak, founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, Ashok Sajjanhar, President, Institute of Global Studies and former Indian ambassador to Sweden, Kazakhstan and Latvia, Dr Dan Banik, director of the Oslo SDG Initiative at the Centre for Development and the Environment and Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid India.

Askok Kumar Pavadia, a former bureaucrat and a leading expert on public policy, has discussed the centrality of governance in achieving SDGs, while P. B. Sharma, vice-chancellor of the Amity University, has dwelt on South-South Cooperation in higher education and Onkareshwar Pandey, former senior Group Editor, Rashtriya Sahara, national daily has discussed the role of digital-driven media.

In their article, Mitos Ladikas and Julia Hahn of Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany and Jiri Dusik of UNDP have emphasized the importance of global technology assessment in the context of the UN Agenda 2030.

Another view by Anirudh Chakradhar and Balakrishna Pisupati underlines the Indian options in localizing the SDGs, and Deepak Arora, Vice President (Public Affairs, Nayara Energy Limited) discusses the role of private sector in accelerating SDGs.

The epilogue by the book editors, Deepak Dwivedi, Pooran C. Pandey, and researcher Vaidehi Misra set up the agenda for the future. The story that started with the MDGs, have translated themselves into the SDGs today. They are going to translate into another set of goals post 2030. “Neither were the goals in the past nor will the ones in the future, be met by the countries through their isolated efforts. Instead, it is only through collaboration with other actors, such as that between the South and the South that the idea of leaving no one behind can become a reality,” it sums up.