EASE OF LIVING INDEX 2018 Pune among top 10 in 9 categories PUNE: Among 111 cities in terms of "liveability" in the Ease of Living Index 2018 released by the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) on Monday, Pune was ranked first.Besides Pune, three other cities in Maharashtra - Navi Mumbai (2nd), Greater Mumbai (3rd) and Thane (6th) - finished in the first 10. Pimpri Chinchwad's ranking (69) has come as a surprise to many. Rampur in UP was at the bottom, followed by Kohima in Nagaland and Patna . Bengaluru, which has seen congestion become a serious drawback, ranks 58 and Hyderabad 27.Interestingly, PM Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi ranked 33. West Bengal did not participate in the exercise.Former bureaucrat and urban planner T C Benjamin said "quality of life" in a city is to be assessed on four factors - health, safety, convenience and beauty. "Ease of living, on the other hand, has more to do with convenience than with the other three factors. Convenience implies easy accessibility to various facilities and, to that extent, Pune may qualify as one of the best. I feel happy at that but, at the same time, the rankings leave me worried about the plight of our other cities which apparently are worse than Pune. "Although Pune did not bag the top rank in any of the 15 parameters the cities were judged on, it finished in the first 10 in nine categories.Pune’s secured an overall score of 58.11 points out of 100. Besides, it also ranked first in “liveability” in the list of cities with a population ranging between 10 lakh and 40 lakh.The city secured second position in two categories — assured water supply and reduction in pollution — and was fourth in health and public open spaces, and eighth in education. However, it ranked 25th in safety and security and 23rd in housing and inclusiveness. It got its lowest rank of 49 for mixed land use and compactness.Thermax CEO M S Unnikrishnan said the ranking comes as no surprise if one compares Pune to other cities “The quality of liveability in Pune is much better than other cities in terms of availability of water, relatively purer air and affordable rentals. The cost of living in Pune has not gone through the roof,” he said.Rohit Gera, managing director of Gera Developments Pvt Ltd, said the top ranking for Pune was the result of the efforts of the civic administration as well as citizen engagement and participation in the city’s development.While some observers attributed the city’s top performance to the Smart City initiatives, other experts questionedthe parameters used in the index to rank cities, pointing out that Pune has been facing challenges on many fronts and that the ground reality has not been reflected in the study.They said that the parameters on which Pune has done well — solid and waste water management, power supply, transportation and mobility — were in reality worrylines on the city’s brow. They also wondered how neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad, which shares a common public transport system with Pune, was ranked a lowly 69th. The twin township also had better housing facilities, they said.The ministry posed about 550 questions to Pune’s civic administration, of which data was provided for about 500 questions. A physical inspection of the city in about 22 categories was conducted by a team appointed by the ministry. The inspections were carried between January and April this year. The data was rechecked by the ministry and the ranking was declared based on 78 indicators.The ease of living rankings were done based on data cities furnished, a third-party survey and direct feedback from around 60,000 citizens. The rankings were announced by urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri, saying this was a first attempt to “empirically capture ease of living”, which the states need to provide to citizens.In June last year, the Union government decided to rank cities based on liveability parameters. The assessment was started in January this year. The inspection was conducted on four indicators (institutional, social, economic and physical) in 15 categories.<doc-sep>NEW DELHI: Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai are the most livable cities, according to the ranking of 111 major cities on livability index released by the urban affairs ministry . While three cities from Maharashtra have made it to the top 10 list, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, which have high number of big cities, could not make it to the first 10.The capital cities of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have found place in the top 10. Rampur in Uttar Pradesh is at the bottom of the list.This is the first-ever exercise undertaken by the government to rank cities on their "ease of living" parameters. Though initially there was plan to cover 116 cities, both 100 smart cities and those with more than one million population. Four cities - Howrah, New Town Kolkata and Durgapur - did not participate in the survey. Moreover, Naya Raipur and Amaravati did not fit into the parameters as these are Greenfield cities.The ease of living framework covered four areas - institutional, social, economic and physical, which were broken down into 15 categories and 78 indicators. Evaluation of cities was done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators. While institutional and social parameters carried 25 points each, a maximum of 45 points were allocated for the physical parameters and the rest five for economic parameters.<doc-sep>Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai from Maharashtra were ranked today India’s three most livable places on the government’s inaugural ‘Ease of Living Index’, where the national capital came at 65th place out of total 111 cities. Capital Delhi was ranked 65th on livability index among 111 major cities in the country, while it came last in the health category. The ‘Ease of Living Index’, the first-ever exercise undertaken by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, ranked the country’s major cities on the basis of four parameters -- governance, social, economic and physical infrastructure. Releasing the index, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the assessment was first of its kind globally in terms of scale and coverage, and the ranking marks a shift to a data-driven approach to urban planning and management and promotes healthy competition among cities.<doc-sep>
Out of 4,000 cities and towns in India, where about 300 cities have a population over 1,00,000 and seven cities have a population of more than 3 million, only 3 cities of Maharashtra – Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai – are the most livable places in the country. Pune ranked first, Navi Mumbai second and New Delhi 65 in Ease of Living Index launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 13, 2018 The latest ranking of 111 cities on the Ease of Living Index released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Monday claims that only said cities are most preferred, most livable and provide for most comfortable options to the people. If it has to come to that one state that offers it all then it has to be Maharashtra because four cities from this state made it to the top 10 list. The National Captial New Delhi was ranked a lowly 65 on the index. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which have a number of big cities, found no representation in the top 10 and this comes as no surprise after a series of attacks, acts of horror, violence against women and kids was at an all-time high in the said cities. What surprises most people is that Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh made it to the top 10 list. MP's capital Bhopal was ranked 10th, while Raipur was placed at the 7th spot. Indore, which is also India's cleanest city was ranked 8th on the list. The Ease of Living Index is an initiative by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to draft a list of cities and asses them on the basis of liveability vis-a-vis global and national benchmarks. The motive is to encourage cities across the country to indulge in healthy competition and reach the top. The cities are ranked on four factors - institutions and governance, social infrastructure (education/health), economic factors and physical infrastructure.