Sustainable Urban Development Goals in India: Issues and Challenges

India has been consistently making efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) through various programmes, it is imperative for the cities to play an important role in localizing SDG. Indian cities are plagued by overcrowding, pollution, climate change, food insecurity and urban sprawl, which are the manifestations of messy and haphazard urbanization. Given the above context, this background paper attempts to understand a) how the goals of SDG are being operationalised in India, b) the current status of the different targets of SDG in India, c) the challenges to achieve these targets and d) the way forward. Since urban development in India is a state subject, achieving the targets under SDG depends on proper implementation and monitoring of programmes by city governments and state agencies. The progress made towards SDG in the country has been moderate. Cities in India face diverse challenges which are slowing the pace of achievement of SDG. The majorities of these challenges are structural and need interventions from the state governments. The paper goes into deep to analyze the achievement of SDG; a bottom-up approach is required along with a robust SDG localization process involving local governments.