2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

        About Sustainable Development Goals:

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
• The SDGs are part of Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly: "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." That has been shortened to "2030 Agenda.
• The goals are broad and interdependent, yet each has a separate list of targets to achieve. Achieving all 169 targets would signal accomplishing all 17 goals.
• The SDGs cover social and economic development issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice.
• UN agencies which are part of the United Nations Development Group decided to support an independent campaign to communicate the new SDGs to a wider audience.
• This campaign, "Project Everyone," had the support of corporate institutions and other international organizations.

        17 Goals:

• End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
• End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
• Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
• Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
• Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
• Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
• Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
• Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
• Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.
• Reduce income inequality within and among countries.
• Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
• Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
• Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy.
• Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
• Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
• Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
• Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

        India's Implementation of SDG:

• The Government of India established the NITI Aayog to attain the sustainable development goals.
• In March 2018 Haryana became the first state in India to have its annual budget focused on the attainment of SDG with a 3-year action plan and a 7-year strategy plan to implement sustainable development goals when Finance Minister of Government of Haryana, unveiled a 1,151,980 million annual 2018-19 budget.
• Several of our initiatives like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojana etc., closely relate to several targets of SDGs.

Fourth Partners’ Forum

         Highlights:

• This is the fourth in a series of global high-level multi-country, multi-stakeholder events aimed at sustaining global momentum for issues related to health of women, children and adolescents.
• The Government of India, in association with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), is hosting a two-day international conference on 12th and 13th December 2018, bringing together about 1500 participants from across 85 countries to improve the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents.
• The invited countries have been selected from across all regions and income levels and include countries that are currently chairing key global and regional bodies.

        About Partners’ Forum:

• Partners’ Forum is a global health partnership launched in September 2005 to accelerate efforts to reduce child and maternal mortality, improve adolescent, child, newborn and maternal health.
• This partnership is an alliance of more than 1,000 plus members, across 10 constituencies in 92 countries: academic, research and teaching institutions; donors and foundations; health care professionals; multilateral agencies; non-governmental organizations; partner countries; global financing mechanisms and the private sector.
• The previous chapters were held in Johannesburg, South Africa (2014), New Delhi, India (2010) and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2007). This is the second time India is hosting the Partners’ Forum.
• The programme of the Partners’ Forum will be framed around the objectives of the Global Strategy of Survive – Thrive – Transform.
• The programme will include four high-level plenaries that will focus on political leadership, multi-sectoral action, accountability and power of partnership.

            The Partners’ Forum will showcase learning from across six regions:  Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Americas, South East Asia and Western Pacific on six thematic areas:

• Early Childhood Development (Germany & Chile);
• Adolescent Health and Well-Being (USA & Indonesia);
• Quality, Equity and Dignity (QED) in Services (India & Cambodia);
• From India, Intensified Mission Indradhanush has been selected as one of the case studies under QED theme.
• Sexual and Reproductive Health (Malawi & Malaysia) and;
• Empowerment of Women, Girls and Communities (South Africa & Guatemala) in Humanitarian and Fragile Settings (Sierra Leone & Afghanistan)

Portal “ENSURE”

         Highlights:

• National Livestock Mission has been conceived by government for the sustainable development of the livestock sector.
• Under the Mission’s component called Entrepreneurship Development and Employment Generation (EDEG), subsidy payment for activities related to poultry, small ruminants, pigs etc. through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) goes directly to the beneficiary’s account.
• In order to make it better, simpler and transparent, the NABARD has developed an online portal “ENSURE” so that the information related to beneficiary and processing of application can be made readily available.
• Under the new process, controlling officer/branch manager of the bank, after scrutinizing & sanctioning of proposal, uploads the subsidy claims in the portal.
• The subsidy will be approved within 30 days from the date of sanction of loan. Earlier, even after the loan approval, subsidy took a long time to reach the beneficiary’s account.
• Through this process, the flow of information/funds will also be quicker and more accountable. The burden of extra interest due to delay in the disbursal of the subsidy would now be reduced after the launch of the portal.
• Access from the portal will also be on real-time basis and list of beneficiaries can be easily prepared.

Indian Ports Association Launches ‘PCS 1x’

         Highlights:

• ‘PCS 1x’ is a cloud based new generation technology, with user-friendly interface.  This system seamlessly integrates 8 new stakeholders besides the 19 existing stakeholders from the maritime trade on a single platform.
• The platform offers value added services such as notification engine, workflow, mobile application, track and trace, better user interface, better security features, improved inclusion by offering dashboard for those with no IT capability.
• A unique feature of ‘PCS1x’ is that it can latch on to third party software which provides services to the maritime industry thereby enabling the stakeholders to access wide network of services.
• The system enables single sign on facility to provide one stop interface to all the functionalities across all stakeholders.
• Another major feature is the deployment of a world class state of the art payment aggregator solution which removes dependency on bank specific payment eco system.
• This system will enable trade to have an improved communication with the customs as they have also embarked on an Application Programming Interface (API) based architecture, thereby enabling real time interaction.
• This System offers a database that acts as a single data point to all transactions. It captures and stores data on its first occurrence thereby reducing manual intervention, the need to enter transaction data at various points and thereby reducing errors in the process.
• This system is also an initiative that supports green initiatives by reducing dependency on paper. The web-based platform has been developed indigenously and is a part of the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiative.