What do you understand by corporate sustainability? What is SDG India Index?

Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony that permits fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of the present and future generations. Corporate sustainability indicates new philosophy, as an alternative to the traditional growth and profit-maximization model, under which sustainable development comprising of environmental protection, social justice and equity, and economic development are given more significant focus while recognizing simultaneous growth of the corporate and profitability. It is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability describes business practices built around social and environmental considerations. Corporate sustainability encompasses strategies and practices that aim to meet the needs of the stakeholders today while seeking to protect, support and enhance the human and natural resources that will be the need of the future. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long-term shareholder value by gearing their strategies and management to harness the market's potential for sustainability products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding sustainability costs and risks. The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) partners with a variety of organizations to assess progress towards SDG achievement at the national level and the local level. Both official and unofficial metrics are used to measure distance to targets for each of the SDGs to identify priorities for action, understand key implementation challenges, track progress, ensure accountability, and identify gaps that must be closed in order to achieve the SDGs by 2030. The SDG India Index 2020-21 is developed in collaboration with the United Nations in India. The NITI Aayog launched its index in 2018 to monitor the country's progress on the goals through data-driven assessment, and foster a competitive spirit among the States and Union Territories in achieving them. The index represents the articulation of the comprehensive nature of the Global Goals under the 2030 Agenda while being attuned to the national priorities. The SDG India Index 2020-21 is also live on an online dashboard, which has cross-sectoral relevance across policy, civil society, business, and academia. Methodology: The SDG India Index computes goal-wise scores on the 17 SDGs for each State and Union Territory. These scores range between 0-100, and if a State/UT achieves a score of 100, it signifies it has achieved the 2030 targets. The higher the score of a State/UT, the greater the distance to target achieved. States and Union Territories are classified in four categories based on their SDG India Index score: Aspirant (0-49). Performer (50-64), Front-Runner (65-99), Achiever (100).