NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the Government of West Bengal and with technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organised a National Workshop on SDG Budgeting in Kolkata on 29 September 2026 under the State Support Mission (SSM) initiative of NITI Aayog. The Workshop focused on strengthening the alignment of planning and budgeting processes with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with emphasis on institutionalising SDG budget tagging and translating financial commitments into measurable development outcomes at the sub-national level.

The Workshop brought together participants from 32 States and Union Territories, along with senior officials from NITI Aayog, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and its offices, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), UNDP, UN Resident Coordinator Office (UNRCO), development partners, and representatives from FICCI, CII, SEBI, Tata Steel Foundation, Intellecap and GIZ. Government representatives from Haryana, Odisha, Meghalaya and West Bengal shared experiences on the implementation and institutionalisation of SDG Budgeting, reflecting the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to SDG localisation.

The inaugural session was graced by Dr. Swapan Dasgupta, Hon'ble Finance Minister, Government of West Bengal; Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, Hon'ble Member, NITI Aayog; Shri K. Sanjay Murthy, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, virtually; Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser, Government of India, virtually; Shri Prabhat Kumar Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Government of West Bengal; Shri Stefan Priesner, United Nations Resident Coordinator; Dr. Angela Lusigi, Resident Representative, UNDP; and Shri Rajib Kumar Sen, Programme Director (SDGs), NITI Aayog.

Delivering the Chief Guest Address, Dr. Swapan Dasgupta said, "What we have not always had is a clean line running from a goal, to a target, to an allocation in the budget, to a unit that will actually spend. Without that line, the SDGs remain an aspiration on the asset side of the ledger with no corresponding entry on the liability side. SDG budget tagging is the discipline of drawing that line."

In his keynote address, Dr. R. Balasubramaniam said, "Mapping the SDGs to State expenditure is a significant step. Whole-of-society and whole-of-government can sound like slogans, but with the finance department, political leadership, multilateral institutions and the private sector together today, the idea becomes real. The task ahead is to guide every State so that money spent can be shown to be money spent wisely”.

Shri Prabhat Kumar Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Government of West Bengal, highlighted that the State has, for the first time, mapped its budget to the goal level of the SDGs and integrated the exercise into its Integrated Financial Management System.

Shri Stefan Priesner highlighted India’s enabling framework for private sector engagement, including CSR, Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting, ESG in capital markets and the Social Stock Exchange, and emphasised the need to integrate sustainability into core business decision-making. Dr. Angela Lusigi highlighted the value of SDG budget tagging in linking expenditure with specific SDG targets and assessing whether resources are reaching those who need them most, while also aligning CSR, investment and philanthropy with development priorities. She also noted the joint standards launched by ISO and UNDP to support public and private organisations in placing the SDGs at the core of decision-making.

The discussions emphasised that SDG budget tagging can enable governments to make expenditure visible against development goals, identify gaps and strengthen evidence-based planning. The “Guide on Mapping State Budgets to the SDGs”, developed jointly by NITI Aayog, the CAG of India and UNDP, was discussed as a practical framework for aligning State budgets with the Goals. The deliberations also underscored the importance of embedding SDG priorities within the annual budget cycle and establishing the institutional arrangements required to move from measurement to mission-mode implementation.

The workshop comprised four technical sessions covering the design elements of SDG budget tagging, including the identification of expenditure to be tagged, the appropriate level of tagging, linkage with the Head of Accounts, tagging to SDG Targets, attribution through NITI Aayog’s Scheme-SDG mapping and value assignment.

States including Haryana, Odisha, Meghalaya and West Bengal shared their experiences of implementation and institutionalisation. Discussions on integrating SDG budgeting into the annual budget cycle covered institutional responsibilities, reconciliation, quality assurance, reporting and performance audit.

The session on “Making It Happen: SDG Budgeting in the Annual Budget Cycle”, led by Shri Navneet Gupta, Principal Accountant General (A&E), examined the integration of SDG budget tagging into budget preparation, institutional responsibilities, and accountability mechanisms including reconciliation, quality assurance, reporting and performance audit, including the role of the CAG

A dedicated session on private sector engagement examined enabling policy frameworks, innovative financing and responsible business conduct to strengthen sustained private sector engagement with the SDGs. Representatives from Tata Steel Foundation, Intellecap, IICA, MoSPI, FICCI, GIZ, ITC Limited, CII and SEBI participated in the session.

As India advances towards Viksit Bharat@2047, with 2030 as a critical milestone for the SDGs, the workshop reaffirmed NITI Aayog’s commitment to strengthening cooperative federalism and supporting States and Union Territories in embedding the SDGs within their planning, budgeting and governance processes. The deliberations underscored the need to strengthen the linkage between public expenditure, development priorities and measurable outcomes, and to accelerate the transition from measurement to implementation.