‘We all can contribute towards achieving goals through sustainable consumption'

Time of India

5 hours ago

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A Ranchi-based social development professional and founder of a non-profit organisation, Citizens' Foundation, Ganesh Reddy, has been recently elected as the secretary of the UN Global Compact Network, India's (UNGCNI) governing council 2025–27.
While speaking to Dhrubajyoti Malakar, Reddy shares his vision and plans for Jharkhand and the country at large on sustainable development.
First of all, congratulations to you for assuming the coveted post. How are you feeling about it?
Thank you. It feels good to receive such acknowledgements. It also brings a renewed sense of responsibility towards the field I have been associated with and a motivation to do good work for society.
Tell us about UNGCNI.
Global Compact Network India is one of the United Nations agencies like UNICEF, UNDP, and UNESCO, etc. It was established in India in 2000. UN Global Compact Network is the largest organisation engaged in corporate sustainability across the globe. And in India as well, it is the largest organisation engaged with different corporates, PSUs, and NGOs. UNGCNI does advocacy to promote the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), also runs various pilot projects to promote SDGs under CSRs.
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How do you assess India or Jharkhand's performance in particular, in achieving the SDGs?
We are not in a very good state as of now, and there are lots of work to be done. Reasons to the setback is many including investment crunches, not adopting to sustainable development practices in development projects, lack of coordination among departments to adhere to the SDGs, among others. To achieve the goals, not only the govts but the citizens also have to start acting responsibly.
What are your visions and plans to address the shortcomings after assuming the post?
We are focusing on engaging with more stakeholders in coming days. Our stakeholders are the state govts, union govts, corporate and PSUs. We are also planning to establish four or five regional hubs across the country to ensure better coordination, capacity building with the states. We are also planning to form goal-based sub committees for better monitoring on implementation of the SDGs.
Apart from this, UNGCNI is going to target more MSMEs for strengthening our partnerships.
How do you think your association with UNGCNI is going to benefit Jharkhand?
As I said, we are focusing on building partnerships with various entities and sensitising them more on adhering to the SDGs, which will prove to be beneficial for Jharkhand and the country as well.
How can commoners contribute to achieving the SDGs?
We all can contribute towards achieving the goals through responsible consumption. Natural resources are limited, we have to make sure how responsibly we consume. For example, while taking a bath, if we use a bucket instead of a shower, we will be able to lower the burden on the planet to a great extent.