‘Scientific planning must for sustainable development Goals’

Hyderabad, Feb.2 (Maxim News): Dr MCR HRD Institute here conducted a “Training Program on Implementation and Monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, sponsored by DoPT, Government of India. The program was attended by senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officers and All India

Services (AIS) Officers from Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and so on from across the country.

Sanjeev Chopra, IAS, Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), who was the chief guest at the valedictory function, gave away participation certificates to the officers. In his keynote address, Sanjeev Chopra said the planning, strategy formulation and decision-making for overall development should be evidence-based with a broader focus. “Had there been scientific planning in farming, Punjab would not have encountered the problems of huge surplus of wheat and rice, which brought in its wake multiple problems for farmers”, he said, adding that the model of development with a singular focus on rice and wheat, at the cost of other crops, does not fit into the framework of sustainable development. He also said that in order to achieve sustainable development, an equi-focus on both agriculture and industry is a sine qua non. “Developing only one sector, at the cost of other equally important sectors, was not the right strategy as all sectors are inter-connected”, he observed.

“While Allopathic system of medicine has got its own merits, a singular focus on its development was not the right approach in addressing the health issues of India”, Sanjeev Chopra opined. Citing the example of China, which earmarks a huge budget for development of its traditional systems of medicine, Chopra stressed the need for development of home-grown systems of medicine, namely, Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani. He said ready access to modern technologies has made it possible not only to identify, in advance, the incidence of such problems as poverty, hunger, malnourishment, but also to find enduring solutions to them.

BP Acharya, IAS, Ex-Officio Special Chief Secretary and DG of Dr MCR HRD Institute, said the training program on SDGs for senior IAS & AIS officers was a first-of-its-kind initiative in India. “Enlightening and empowering the leadership at top rungs of administrative hierarchy will be greatly instrumental in giving a big boost to successful implementation of SDGs and also in ameliorating the lot of weaker sections of society”, he stated. “Framing simple metrics for the concurrent monitoring of the implementation of the SDGs, rather than complicating the whole issue by using complex systems, was the need of the hour”, he added. (Maxim News)