Exploring the ‘Safe Operating Space’ of nations are important for devising suitable strategies for the effectual implementation of UN-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). In this context, the present study attempts to ascertain the environmental and social challenges hindering sustainable development (SD) in India along with linking these challenges to the SDGs and policy mechanisms in place for their alleviation. Environmental issues were determined by down-scaling the planetary boundaries (PB) to national scales while the social issues were highlighted in terms of their deprivation rates fixing the possession rates for all indicators at hundred percent. An in-depth analysis of available literature and scoping of national reports and databases were undertaken for the determination of national boundaries and the retrieval of values against the selected indicators, respectively. Furthermore, the existing policies and national missions were critically assessed to establish the linkages between existing challenges, SDGs and government policies. Results obtained highlighted gender inequality and severely stressed biocapacity as well as land use change as the major social and environmental issues, respectively. However, indicator based statistics compiled for rural India showed improved possession rates in the sanitation and electricity sectors thereby signifying the progress achieved by the country in these fronts. Analysis of policy frameworks revealed the existence of multiple interconnections between the SDG targets and environmental and social dimensions and thereby highlighting the role of governance for SD. A national policy for ‘Safe Habitat and Sustainable Environment’ along with several policy recommendations such as exploring the potential of education and research for SD were proposed for boosting the sustainability governance in India.

中文翻译：

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通过有效的政策调整，探索印度的“安全运营空间”以实现联合国可持续发展目标

探索国家的“安全运营空间”对于制定有效实施联合国可持续发展目标（UN-SDGs）的合适战略至关重要。在这种情况下，本研究试图确定阻碍印度可持续发展的环境和社会挑战，并将这些挑战与可持续发展目标和为缓解这些问题而制定的政策机制联系起来。环境问题是通过将行星边界（PB）缩小到国家尺度来确定的，而社会问题则以其剥夺率将所有指标的拥有率固定为100％来强调。对现有文献进行了深入分析，并确定了国家报告和数据库的范围，以分别确定国界和根据选定指标检索价值。此外，对现有政策和国家任务进行了严格评估，以建立现有挑战，可持续发展目标与政府政策之间的联系。获得的结果突出表明了性别不平等和严重强调的生物承载力以及土地利用变化是主要的社会和环境问题。但是，针对印度农村地区编制的基于指标的统计数据表明，卫生和电力部门的拥有率有所提高，从而表明该国在这些方面取得了进展。对政策框架的分析表明，可持续发展目标与环境和社会层面之间存在多种相互联系，从而突出了可持续发展在可持续发展方面的作用。为促进印度的可持续性治理，提出了一项“安全的栖息地和可持续环境”的国家政策以及一些政策建议，例如探索可持续发展的教育和研究潜力。