Among the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG-9 on Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure is of particular interest to India and other South Asian countries that have not been able to harness the potential of industrialization for their development. This subregional study reviewed the status of achievement of specific targets under SDG-9 in the subregion to identify the key gaps across the countries; it identified the key challenges faced by the countries in the subregion in achieving SDG 9 targets; reviewed the key challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic and the geopolitical developments such as the Ukraine-Russian war; reviewed the key means of implementation needed for achieving the targets; and summarized the key issues and challenges for global, regional and subregional partnership towards accelerating the progress in respect of SDG-9. Finally, it concluded with the policy lessons for national, subregional, and international actions. The paper was presented by Dr Chatterjee at the South Asia SDG Forum held in Islamabad in December 2022. Prof Nagesh Kumar was invited to share some insights into India’s industrial strategy at SDG-9 panels at the High-Level Political Forum held in July 2023 at the UN Headquarters. It is proposed to continue to remain engaged with the UN SDGs-9 process in view of its strong relevance for ISID’s work.

Research Team: Prof Nagesh Kumar and Dr Shiladitya Chatterjee

Status: [ongoing]

India while accelerating its industrial transformation can do it in a more sustainable manner by exploiting the potential of green industrialization combining the objectives of industrialization as well as ecological sustainability. Adoption of cleaner technologies as well as strategic interventions to harmonize the requirements of productivity-enhancing structural change with environmental objectives and to align national interests with the protection of global commons is the objective of green industrial strategy. For instance, the policies that incentivize the development and use of green technologies such as wind, solar, bioenergy, geothermal, hydrogen, and fuel-cell technologies, or those that help save other natural resources need to be adopted. While India has taken several initiatives towards the promotion of renewable energy and promoting energy efficiency, a comprehensive framework is yet to be evolved. ISID has started a discussion with Fletcher School’s Climate Policy Lab at the Tufts University to develop a collaborative research programme on green industrial strategy for India, taking advantage of their expertise and recent work on the subject. A Policy Roundtable was organized as a first step with heads and experts from key think tanks from India, the US and Germany, India (CEEW, IIT-Delhi) and UNIDO in April 2022. Another Policy Roundtable was organized on Technological Opportunities for a Low Carbon World on April 27, 2023 with experts from UNCTAD, Geneva, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Tufts University and IIT Delhi. ISID is planning further work with UNU-WIDER on green industrialization opportunities and policy lessons for India. Dr Anjali Tandon has started some work on factors enhancing the energy efficiency in Indian steel industry.

Research Team: Prof Nagesh Kumar, Prof Kelly Gallagher (Climate Policy Lab, Tufts University), Dr E Narasimham (Climate Policy Lab, Tufts University and CPR), Dr Kunal Sen, UNU/WIDER, and Dr Anjali Tandon

Status: [Ongoing]; project launched in April 2022