Permanent Mission of India
New York
--

High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development – General Debate

Theme: Transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for a sustainable future for all

Statement by Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, Permanent Representative
14 July 2026

Excellencies,

India stands at this Forum with the clear conviction that the remaining years to 2030 demand a fundamental reorientation of what development means and how it should be measured. The theme before us, calling for transformative, equitable, innovative, and coordinated action, must be acted upon in letter and spirit.

The 2030 Agenda was the beginning of a transformative process. India’s experience over the past decade demonstrates that scale and speed are achievable. Our renewable energy transition, digital public infrastructure, and expanded social protection systems have reached hundreds of millions of people, bridging the divide between urban centres and rural hinterlands. Yet aggregate growth though necessary, on its own, leaves structural inequalities intact. Inclusive development requires deliberate design.

As stated by our Hon’ble Prime Minister at the 2025 G20 Johannesburg Summit, development must be sustainable, and progress must ensure inclusive prosperity. Guided by this vision, India advocates a development paradigm that restores ecological systems while creating livelihoods, builds human capabilities while strengthening community resilience, and recognises the care economy as productive infrastructure – not invisible labour. Empowering women and youth as active agents of change in their ecosystems is central to this approach.

India’s Viksit Bharat or Developed India 2047 vision embeds these principles at the national level: clean energy, regenerative agriculture, urban sustainability, universal quality healthcare and education, and skilling for the green and digital economy. It is further strengthened by initiatives such as Mission LiFE, which calls for a shift towards environmentally responsible lifestyles rooted in individual and community action.

We are aligning domestic policy frameworks with the SDGs and moving beyond GDP as the primary measure of national progress. True and lasting development can only be achieved when all partners and stakeholders work together and that is why India’s SDG localisation model involves a ‘whole-of government’ and ‘whole-of-society’ approach.

At the global level, transformation requires coordination on a scale we are yet to achieve. Developing nations must receive equitable access to the capital and technology required to transition to regenerative models. Innovation must be shared as a global public good. The reform of the international financial architecture is a prerequisite for equitable action.

India carries this paradigm forward grounded in our civilisational ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — the whole world is a family. Our commitment is unwavering, to leave no one behind, to mobilise resources where they matter most and to lead by example. The future we seek is a regenerative development path, one of true flourishing for humanity and our planet.

Thank you.