Supporting India’s Sustainable Development Goals: The Socio-Economic Impact of UK Businesses in India
This report is the first of UKIBC’s Socio-Economic Impact initiative, which works to highlight the contribution of UK businesses in India relative to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It further seeks to determine the opportunities for businesses to do more to contribute to India’s SDGs agenda by bringing light to the challenges that prevent such action as well as examining and comparing India’s needs and the UK’s strengths to support.
Socio-economic development is achieved through improving both economic activity, such as increasing investment and developing new technology and techniques, and social outcomes, like nurturing education, improving healthcare, and protecting the environment. That is, social and economic development are complementary. Education and healthcare improvements can assist economic growth for example, while economic growth is vital to providing resources that can have a wider social impact. Therefore, businesses have a direct impact on, and responsibility for, the social lives of more than just their employees, clients and stakeholders with whom they directly interact.
India has not been immune to the economic impact of COVID-19. Furthermore, the poorer portions of society have been the worst affected due to less secure jobs and less savings. On the other hand, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said that India’s economy could prove the most resilient in South Asia and that it will continue to attract market-seeking investments to the country.
The private sector is and will be the largest contributor to the recovery from COVID-19. As this report alludes to, UK companies can be, and already are contributing to the recovery, as well as more widely in India’s sustainable development drive. You can download the report free using the link below.
Author: Kealan Finnegan
We, at UKIBC, have partnered with UNDP through our Socio-Economic Impact initiative to highlight the important work being carried out in this regard and, by doing so, hope to exhort more companies to do the same.
