Hyderabad, Apr 25 (KNN) NITI-Aayog is keen to work with planning departments of the states across the country for implementing and monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said NITI Aayog Vice Chairman.

Speaking at an international conference on ‘Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ organised by ASCI and German Development Institute (GDI), Vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, Rajiv Kumar said “An integrated dashboard will be set up where all the development works can be closely monitored.”

For SDGs to be mainstreamed, it is imperative that capacity building is taken up on a large scale with national and regional consultations “but we are at an early stage”, he admitted.

Kumar also explained various initiatives taken to improve the scientific ecosystem like the Atal Innovation Mission through which 2,500 tinkering labs have been started in secondary schools, 50% of them in the government schools, with 18,000 voluntary mentor-teachers from top institutes.

“We plan to scale them up to 5,000 in the next two years and 20,000 in the next five years,” he said.