Pune Tops Ease of Living Index, Delhi at 65th position

New Delhi: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 13 August released the result of Ease of Living Index survey. Total of 116 cities was to be surveyed but some cities backed out and the survey was conducted for only 111 cities. The index was categories into four broad pillars Institutional, Social, Economic and Physical.
As the result announced Pune emerges as the top city in the livability index followed by Navi Mumbai and Mumbai. Out of 100, Pune scored 58.11, Navi Mumbai scores 58.02 and greater Mumbai scored 57.78 marks. Cities from Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu which have the highest number of cities didn’t make it to the top 10 and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh comes at the bottom of the list.

“The ease of living assessment covers several metrics critical to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in an urban environment. The analysis of data will also, in turn, encourage authorities concerned to know where to focus in the coming months,” Puri said.

Delhi was ranked 65th with a score of 33.18 out of 100 on liveability index among the major cities. The National capital, which has the population of 1.13 crore, score very poor in health category as it stood last, while in governance category it ranked 19th and secured 59th position in the education category. Delhi scored way less than the national average of 2.17 out of five and on the social front, it got 71st rank.

Bhubaneswar has been ranked 18th most livable city. But it stood at rank one in the category of public open spaces. The Capital bagged 17th position in safety and security, 10th in transportation and mobility, 33rd in solid waste management, 40th in the power supply, 18th in economy and employment, 19th in identity and culture, 25th in governance, 11th position in Education, 59th in Health category and 86th in Housing and Inclusiveness category. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation officials said, if you were to compare the list of cities having the population under one million then, Bhubaneswar, with the population of 8.85 lakh stood at fourth position after Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli and Amravati. Mangaluru is the most liveable city in Karnataka as Mangaluru scored 10.25 in the Institutional pillar under which governance has been measured. It also scored 3.47 in the health category of the social pillar and 4.13 in the education category under the same pillar. While overall score of Bengaluru is 34.38 all categories combined, Mangaluru scored just above it with an overall score of 37.9.

Two cities Vijaywada and Tirupati from Andhra Pradesh made it to the elite rankers in livability index of Indian cities. While Vijaywada secured the ninth rank with a score of 49.27 out of 10, Tirupati secured the fourth rank with a score of 57.52 marks out of 100. In economic category, Vijayawada stood at 10th position, however, in physical infrastructure category it failed to make it to the top-ranked list but it secured the ninth position in institutional aspect and eighth for the social aspect. Tirupati, on the other hand, secured the sixth position in physical infrastructure category and first in the social institution category.

Kohima scored 18.13 points out of 100, as it suffered on institutional, economic and physical measurements grounds. Under the institutional pillar, with governance as the index, Kohima scored 3.62 out of possible 25 points. The worst it scored is economic category was it scored zero in ‘economic and employment’ parameters. In physical pillars with a total of 45 possible points, Kohima scored 6.76 with nil entry on the Waste Water Management and Housing and Inclusiveness. Kohima performed relatively better in the social pillar with an overall score of 7.75 out of 25 points.

Panaji capital of Goa just misses out from becoming the worst city in the country as it ranked 90 among 111 in the survey. It scored 27.84 points way less than the top city Pune despite the fact that government of Goa highlights the quality of life in the city though it scored well on parameters associated with open spaces and education, with the ranking of 43 and 23 respectively. But the capital was let down on parameters for housing, water supply, economy, health, and employment.