Coimbatore ranked second in the inaugural Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Urban Index and Dashboard 2021-22 released by the NITI Aayog-GIZ and BMZ under the umbrella of Indo-German Development Cooperation on Tuesday.
While Shimla was adjudged the performer with a score of 75.50, Coimbatore got a score of 73.29 in the SDG Urban Index which ranked 56 urban areas in the country on 77 SDG indicators across 46 targets of the SDG framework.
Tiruchi, with a score of 70, is the other city from Tamil Nadu in the top 10 cities in the index which assessed 77 indicators covering sectors such as poverty reduction, nutrition, health, education, women empowerment, water and sanitation, clean energy, economic growth, industry, infrastructure, reduced inequalities, urban development, climate action, forests and governance.
In the list of goal-wise performing urban areas, Coimbatore stood first in poverty reduction; fourth in quality education; fifth in industry, innovation and infrastructure; and eighth in gender equality.
According to the SDG Urban Index and Dashboard, 44 out of the 56 urban units considered for ranking have a population of above one million. The remaining 12 are capital cities with a population of less than a million.
It said that the index and the dashboard will further strengthen SDG localisation and institute robust SDG monitoring at the city level. It highlights the strengths and gaps of urban local body-level data, monitoring, and reporting systems.
Tools such as this index and dashboard will contribute to the creation of an ecosystem in which all stakeholders will be equipped to adopt and implement data-driven decision making, it said.