Pune tops Ease of Living Index | 14 Aug 2018

Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai from Maharashtra were ranked India's three most livable places on the government's inaugural 'Ease of Living Index' released by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.

• The national capital, New Delhi, is ranked 65 among 111 cities, while Chennai is in 14th place. Kolkata did not participate in the survey.
• The other cities in the top ten include Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada and Bhopal.
• The three cities at the bottom of the rankings are Rampur, Kohima, and Patna.

Concerns

• According to the Government, it followed four parameters while determining the Ease of living Index such as governance, social, economic and physical infrastructure.
• Moreover, the evaluation of cities has been done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators -- institutional and social pillars carried 25 points each, 5 points were given for economic pillar and 45 points for the physical pillar.
• According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the ranking marks “a shift to a data-driven approach to urban planning and management and is likely to incorporate citizen and stakeholder feedbacks in its future reports.
• According to the members of the consortium who carried out the survey, the reason behind trailing of most of the cities including the National Capital is because of the inability of the urban local bodies to provide data’s prescribed under the survey.
• Particular complications were also seen in indicators such as health where local governments did not have access to data from private hospitals.
• The consortium assisted cities in plugging the data gap with regard to certain indicators.

Way Forward

• Various Central government schemes like Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT mission initiated for achieving inclusive development of urban areas and cities should be aligned under the index to achieve more realistic results.
• The data provided by various government bodies sometimes do not have synergy with ground realities. Thus a proper transparent mechanism with the active participation of the citizens can go a long way in carving out a genuine survey.
• The Index should also recognize that the vibrant life of cities depends on variety and enabling environments, rather than relying merely on a data-driven approach.
• The survey should give more stress on pollution-free commons, walkability, and easy mobility, with a base on citizen-driven services.