Research on Sustainable Development Goals: How has Indian Scientific Community Responded?

Abstract

Since the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, various countries across the world have started programmes to achieve the relevant targets under SDGs. The advancements in research and development play a crucial role in achieving these targets. Motivated by this a few studies have tried to map the research publications with their relevance to specific SDGs. However, there are no existing detailed studies with reference to India. Therefore, this article attempts to measure the research activities on SDGs in India. It utilises standard bibliometrics approach and textual analysis of data collected from Dimensions database for a five-year period (2016–2020). The results show a positive response from the Indian research community towards the SDGs. About 12 percent of the total research output from India is found directly related to SDGs. The three SDGs namely SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 13 (Climate Change) have received most attention from the Indian research community. Technical subjects such as, Engineering, Medical and Health Sciences, and Chemical Sciences are the main contributors. The major contributing institutions, authors and journals are identified.