Assam: Course on UN's Sustainable Development Goals 2030 makes an IIT debut in Guwahati

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) has become the first IIT to introduce a course on UN-Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 in B Tech curriculum from this academic year (2020-2021).

The course will be offered to the second year B.Tech students as a compulsory course, to reorient the thinking of young and dynamic individuals towards the path of sustainable development, IITG said in a statement on Monday.

In 2015, world leaders agreed at the United Nations General Assembly to implement 17 SDGs that resolved to transform the world, building upon the principle of “leaving no one behind”.

These 17 goals aim to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality, addressing the urgency of climate change and several other holistic approaches.

Guided by the principles of these goals, this course provides a unique opportunity to the B.Tech students to understand the concepts of sustainability and work towards building a better society for everyone, it said.

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, the nodal department for this course, collaborated and pooled resources from eight other departments of the Institute— departments of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Civil Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Design and Physics — to design and implement the course.

Faculty members from each of these departments will jointly conduct the course and will provide exposure to B.Tech students on the technological, economical, ecological and societal aspects of these 17 SDGs.

Quoting T G Sitharam, director of IIT Guwahati, the statement said the course on the SDGs would try to prepare the students to play leading roles in achieving the goal of "Transforming the World."

Anamika Barua, course coordinator from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati, said, “The students, through this course, would be educated to critically evaluate the idea of sustainability as an emerging discipline and have an opinion on the role for India, as a nation, in the successful implementation of the new SDGs”.