Performance Reflections on Quality Education in Respect of SDGs: A Re-Assessment of Indian States and UTs Using TOPSIS Approach
Author : Ayan Chattopadhyay and Somarata ChakrabortyVolume 8 No.1 January-March 2019 pp 102-109
Abstract
The success of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has led to the initiation of Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, earmarking a time frame of 2016–2030 for its achievement. The Sustainable Development Goals framework consists of 17 goals and 169 targets within the three broader dimensions of economic, social and environmental development. The performance evaluation of Indian states and union territories, available in SDG India Index Baseline Report, 2018, has been recently concluded by NITI Aayog. Focusing on goal 4that puts thrust on quality education, NITI Aayog has considered 7 criteria capturing targets 4.1 besides 4.c and 36 alternatives (Indian states and union territories) within a multi criteria decision making environment where criteria weights are assumed to be equal, performance calculated on the basis of simple arithmetic average theory and missing value cases not considered in their computation. This simplistic approach partially captures the effect of complex interplay between the multiple criterions. The purpose of this paper is to re-evaluate the performance of Indian states and union territories with respect to goal 4of Sustainable Development Goals, as estimated by NITI Aayog. It also aims to provide a more holistic picture on performance ranking by incorporating varying weights of criteria, as obtained from Shannon’s entropy, and replacing arithmetic average theory with a more rigorous mathematical model within the domain of multi criteria decision making. In this study Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution have been used to generate an index for ranking alternatives and all missing values have been figured from expectation maximization algorithm. As expected, rank reversal phenomenon has been observed and a very low level of convergence between ranks obtained from the proposed approach and that of NITI Aayog emerges.
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution, NITI Aayog, Shannon’s Entropy Weight, Rank Convergence
Full Text:
References
[1] Barbier, E.B. (1987). The concept of sustainable economic development. Environmental Conservation, 14:101–110. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/concept-ofsustainable-economic-development/
[2] Barbier, E.B. & Markandya, A. (2012). A New Blueprint for a Green Economy. London, UK: Taylor & Francis.
[3] Behzadian, M., Otaghsara, S.K., Yazdani, M, & Ignatius, J. (2012). A state-of the-art survey of TOPSIS applications, Expert Systems with Applications. 39, 13051–13069.
[4] Chen, M.F., Tzeng, G.H., & Ding, C.G. (2003). Fuzzy MCDM approach to select service provider. Paper presented at the IEEE International Conference on fuzzy systems, 1, 572-577. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1109/ FUZZ.2003.1209427.
[5] A Civil Society report. (2017). Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030. Retrieved from http://www.indiaenvironment portal.org.in/files/file /Civil-society-Report-on-SDGs.pdf.
[6] Costanza, R., Daly, L., Fioramonti, L., Giovannini, E., Kubiszewskia, I., Mortensen, L. F. & Wilkinson, R. (2016). Modelling and measuring sustainable wellbeing in connection with the UN Sustainable development Goals. Ecological Economies, 130, 350-3555. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0921800915303359
[7] Hwang, C.L. & Yoon, K. (1981). Multiple Attribute Decision Making. New York, USA: Springer-Verlag.
[8] Liu, P. (2009). Multi-attribute decision-making method research based on interval vague set and TOPSIS method. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 15(3), 453–463.
[9] NITI Aayog. (2017). Voluntary National Review Report. Retrieved from http:// www.niti.gov.in/content/voluntary-national-review-report
[10] NITI Aayog. (2018). SDG India Index Baseline Report. Retrieved from http:// www.niti.gov.in/content/sdg-india-index-baseline report 2018.
[11] Park, J.H., Park, I.Y., Kwun, Y.C., & Tan, X. (2011). Extension of the TOPSIS method for decision making problems under interval-valued in tuitionistic fuzzy environment. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 35, 2544–2556.
[12] Pinter, U. & Pšunder, I. (2013). Evaluating construction project success with use of the M-TOPSIS method. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 19, 16–23.
[13] Regmi, K.P. (2015). Can lifelong learning be the post-2015 agenda for the Least Developed Countries? International Journal of Lifelong Education, 34(5), 551–568.
[14] Shannon, C.E., & Weaver, W. (1947). The mathematical theory of communication. Illinois, USA: Urbana-The University of Illinois Press.
[15] Shidpour, H., Shahrokhi, M., & Bernard, A. (2013). A multi-objective programming approach, integrated into the TOPSIS method, in order to optimize product design; in three-dimensional concurrent engineering. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 64, 875–885.
[16] United Nations. (2015). Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and Follow-Up to the Outcomes of the Major United Nations Conferences and Summits in the Economic, Social and Related Fields. General Assembly Report. Retrieved from http://www. un.org/en/ga/62/plenary/followupconf/bkg.shtml
[17] United Nations. (2012). the future we want. Outcome document of the Conference on Sustainable Development. Retrieved from https://sustdevelopment.un.org/content/documents/733FutureWeWant.pdf
[18] UN. (2013b). Open Working Group proposal for Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from https://sustainable development.un.org/content/documents/1579SDGs%20Proposal.pdf.
[19] UN. (2014). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly. Retrieved from http://unstats.un.org/unsd/dnss/gp/FP-New-E.pdf.
[20] UN. (2015a). Agenda 2030 ‘to-do list for people and planet’. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/ press/en/2015/sgsm17111. doc.htm.
[21] UNESCO. (2016). Unpacking sustainable development goal 4 education 2030 guide. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco. org/images/0024/002463/246300E.pdf.