Interventions and representations to achieve the sustainable development goals: insights from India

Melina Manochin and Carolyn Cordery

Meditari Accountancy Research, 2025, vol. 33, issue 7, 568-592

Abstract: PurposeFollowing from the United Nations’ (UN) promotion of “prosperity while protecting the planet” and to “leave no one behind” through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study aims to examine the role of policy entrepreneurs in influencing current actions and how global SDGs are represented at a local level.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine SDG policies and practices in India, a developing nation for which SDG success would be transformative, particularly for areas designated as Aspirational Districts. Specifically, the authors analyse an Indian Think Tank/policy entrepreneur and how they engage with other policymakers, auditors, corporates, non-government organisations and civil society to disrupt backlogs and bureaucracy. Their work is theorised in our observations of the actions (interventions) and “talk” or representation of the changes they seek to embed.FindingsIndia’s interventions and representations include KPIs developed and reported in India to spur change in areas deemed in need of development and the policy entrepreneurs positively present themselves globally as “beacons of sustainability” through reports to the UN. New ways of thinking (governmentality) are evidenced in a bricolage of how actions are represented. Reflecting the complexities of translating global SDGs to local goals, the authors observe the Think Tank interacting with networks of other entrepreneurs to spur SDG achievement.Originality/valueThis research highlights the innovation of policy entrepreneurs in India who represent particular understandings of sustainable development and mobilise actions to ameliorate “underdevelopment”. The authors theorise policy entrepreneurship through Foucault’s governmentality, noting that the Think Tank enacts technologies to change behaviours in Aspirational Districts and blocks. This unique approach leads to unexpected impacts.

Keywords: India; Accountability; Governmentality; SDGs; Policy entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:medarp:medar-03-2025-2910

DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-03-2025-2910

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