India has made strides towards achieving the SDGs, with marked improvements in poverty alleviation, quality education, health, sanitation, and energy access. A distinctive model for SDGs implementation with states and districts playing a central role in localising goals, mechanisms for fostering competitive federalism and accountability exemplifies India’s holistic and homegrown approach to sustainable development. However, persistent challenges remain, particularly in climate resilience, gender equality, undernourishment, unplanned urbanisation, and biodiversity conservation, requiring sustained and targeted interventions

India’s VNRs from 2017 to 2025 reflect a clear trajectory of deepening engagement with the SDGs, from laying the groundwork to expanding participation and integrating innovation and global leadership. Its latest VNR continues the whole-of-society approach pioneered in 2020, and undertakes a comprehensive stock-taking of all SDGs showing steep poverty reduction and rapid social protection expansion, while acknowledging challenges such as inequality, job creation, and data gaps. It highlights digital innovation as a key accelerator and shares scalable governance models illustrating India’s role as a global SDGs leader. 

India’s advantage lies in its vibrant philanthropic culture, where actors are leading the way through investments in non-traditional sectors and fostering strong partnership ecosystems for deeper and bigger impact. Crafting a common agenda; aligning impact and scale; adopting a capabilities-driven approach with robust engagement structures; and investing in trust-building are some key building blocks for successful partnerships. By sharing its best practices , India can drive South-South Cooperation (SSC) and craft a robust partnership agenda involving philanthropic foundations, non-profits, government, and the community to encourage innovative solutions. 

Collectives in India serve as transformative platforms with multi-dimensional social objectives beyond income generation. They have scaled up through unique partnerships, support structures, targeted initiatives, and strategies. Some successful strategies include: promoting local engagement and ownership, building institutional support and multi-stakeholder partnerships, designing gender-inclusive programmes for multi-dimensional impact, and harnessing digital technology. India’s experience with collectives offers insights into how grassroots initiatives can address local development challenges, and can be a guiding light for expanding such initiatives in the Global South.

India has witnessed the successful development and deployment of a diverse set of AI and emerging technology-based solutions aimed at accelerating progress on the SDGs. Drawing on lessons from pioneering initiatives, some key principles for deploying technology to maximise impact and resilience include: respecting users’ dignity and agency and ensuring their needs shaped the final product; focusing on human-centred design to ensure that solutions are responsive, trustworthy and relevant; embedding data privacy, intentional inclusion, and accessibility at the outset; and designing for openness and scale. With these principles, one can ensure that technology remains a tool to empower communities to shape their own futures.

Over its 10-year SDGs journey, India has pursued a twin programme of progress at home and building bridges with the world. Looking beyond 2030, India’s development leadership hinges on s: a world-class workforce, drawing on the household-level and national hunger to invest more in education and skills; a broad spectrum of digital public goods, besides cooperation around AI; and a strong democratic federalism that aligns national agendas with regional needs, crafting compelling development propositions, and retaining an openness to collaborate. This approach, if sustained, will allow India to meet its own aspirations and to redefine what development stewardship might look like in the decades ahead.