Bengaluru & Shimla among 'Most liveable' cities in India in Government's Ease of Living Index

Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday, March 4, 2021, announced the release of the final rankings of Ease of Living Index-2020 and the Municipal Performance Index-2020 in New Delhi in an online event.

The rankings under Ease of Living Index-2020 were announced for cities with a population of more than a million and cities with less than a million people. In all, 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted last year.

Mr Puri today in a tweet said, "Delighted to launch the 2nd iteration of Ease of Living Index & the first-ever Municipal Performance Index today. Also announced the results for Ease of Living Index 2020 & Municipal Performance Index 2020 which have added to India's ever-evolving approach to urban development."

https://twitter.com/HardeepSPuri/status/1367404373697949699

Bengaluru emerged as the top performer in the Million Plus category, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore and Greater Mumbai. In the Less than Million category, Shimla was ranked the highest in ease of living, followed by Bhubaneshwar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere and Tiruchirappalli.

In another tweet, Mr Puri congratulated the winners of the Ease of Living Index. He said, "EoL index ranks 111 cities on basis of 49 development indicators under the quality of life, economic-ability, sustainability & citizens' perception of basic services. MPI evaluates enabling factors that lead to development outcomes evaluated under EoL. Congratulations to the winners!"

Similar to the Ease of Living Index index, the assessment framework under Municipal Performance Index-2020 has classified municipalities based on their population, Million plus and less than Million Population.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in a tweet said, "MoS H&UA @HardeepSPuri will announce the results for Ease of Living and Municipal Performance Indices 2020 as part of @SmartCities_HUA today, 12:30 PM onwards. @MoHUA_India."

In the Million plus category, Indore has emerged as the highest-ranked municipality, followed by Surat and Bhopal. In the Less than Million category, New Delhi Municipal Council has emerged as the leader, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.

The Municipal Performance Index examined the sectoral performance of 111 municipalities with Delhi being assessed separately for NDMC and the three Municipal Corporations across five verticals which comprise 20 sectors and 100 indicators in all totality. The five verticals under the Municipal Performance Index are Services, Finance, Policy, Technology and Governance.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Puri said, as per the Census of 2011, India's urban residents account for 31 per cent of the population and by 2030, it is estimated to reach 40 per cent or 60 crore and by 2050, 50 per cent or 80 crore people. He said, cities are the engines of growth and so the rapid urbanisation also indicates how fast the economy is growing.

The Minister said, the Central Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unleashed the most comprehensive effort to transform the urban landscape. He said, the Swachh Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban and Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission are the flagship programmes being implemented since 2014-15.

Mr Puri said, the incorporation of smart solutions, cooperative federalism, innovation and new technologies coupled with data-driven governance and evidence-based policymaking has particularly marked a landmark shift in India's urban governance. He said, to complement these measures, the evaluation of the impact of these interventions is equally important.

The Housing and Urban Affairs Minister said, Ease of Living Index and Municipal Performance Index are the two evaluative tools that will add a new chapter to India's ever-evolving approach to urban development.

He added that the ranking system harnesses the idea of competitiveness to propel cities into performing better with the aim to climb higher on the rankings.