Resilience as a Development Imperative: Taking Stock of India’s Industrial Preparedness

As climate extremes intensify and infrastructure systems around the world face unprecedented stress, the global community is grappling with a stark reality that resilience is no longer optional rather an urgent imperative. International frameworks such as the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, as well as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, both acknowledge the urgency of improving the resiliency of global infrastructure. Despite 2025 marking the 10th Anniversary of their adoption, progress with respect to the targets has been modest. According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2024 Report, only 17 percent of the targets appear to be on track, with poor infrastructure resilience, financing gaps, and governance challenges being identified as major barriers. Similarly, the midterm review of the Sendai Framework highlights that there has been slow progress with respect to Target D, which aims to “significantly cut disaster-related losses to critical infrastructure and interruptions to essential services by 2030”. In particular, parties have reported that between 2015 and 2023, an average of 92,199 critical infrastructure assets have been damaged annually, with more than 1.6 million basic service facilities being disrupted. [Read more…]