Shimla ranked 'most livable' cities in government's Tops Ease of Living Index 2021

Shimla, Bengaluru ranked 'most livable' cities in government's Tops Ease of Living Index 2021

(Ease of Living Index 2020: Bengaluru tops list of big cities, Shimla best among small cities)  By Negi RK 

Shimla is the most liveable city on the Ease of Living Index of cities with less than 1 million population. Shimla is followed by Bhubaneswar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere and Tiruchirapalli.

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday released the Ease of Living Index 2020. While Bengaluru topped the list of cities with more than 10 lakh people, Shimla stood first in the list of cities having less than 10 lakh of population. A total of 111 cities were assessed during the surveying exercise, of which 49 have populations over 10 lakh, and 62 have populations below 10 lakh people. Among cities with over 10 lakh people, Pune stood second, followed by Ahmedabad and Chennai. However, Srinagar ranked last in the list.

The ministry of housing and urban affairs on Thursday released the rankings of cities with a population of more than a million and a separate ranking for cities with population of less than a million. In the million plus cities, Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad emerged as the most liveable cities of India. These were followed by Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore and Greater Mumbai.

Shimla is the most liveable city on the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) of cities with less than 1 million population. Shimla is followed by Bhubaneswar, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere and Tiruchirapalli. 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted in year 2020. The EoLI is an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development. It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India based on quality of life, economic-ability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience. One of the biggest highlights of this exercise has been the citizen perception survey, which was included as a parameter in EoLI.

What makes the achievement even more spectacular is that fact that Shimla was ranked 92nd in the Ease of Living Index in 2018. The city jumped 92 places to top the table this year. “It’s indeed a fantastic achievement. Jumping 92 places to top the list is really impressive. The Smart City team and the Municipal Corporation deserve a lot of credit and praise for this huge improvement in the rankings,” said Smart City Managing Director Abid Hussian. Smart Cities Mission director Kunal Kumar said, “While the government of India executes many different programs and announces many different policies, the same is also done at the level of the State governments, but a lot of execution happens at the level of cities. It is important for us to assess and reflect on the outcomes of these programs and policies on ground. Most importantly, the Smart Cities Mission has an emphasis at its core principle, of building cities around people and it is hence very important for us to understand, what citizens feel about all public and private initiatives and how they feel about the city they live in?” It is in this background that the EoLI was launched in 2020. A similar index was attempted in 2018. However, it was felt that citizen perception had to be included. “It is in this context that after the 2018, a decision was taken that we will split this index into two; one, which represents outcomes as espoused by citizens, which became the ease of living index 2020 and the inputs which go specifically through the government in achieving those outcomes as the municipal performance index 2020,” Kumar said.

The municipal performance index indicates what kind of governance makes the city liveable. In million plus cities, Indore has topped the municipal performance index (MPI), followed by Surat and Bhopal. In cities with less than a million population, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has topped MPI, followed by Tirupati, Gandhinagar, Karnal, Salem, Tiruppur, Bilaspur, Udaipur, Jhansi, Tirunelveli.

Unlike the first ease of living index (EoLI) report of 2018, the latest ranking of cities in 2020 has put 111 cities in two categories, million-plus and cities having population less than a million.

The report was released by Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday. The assessment exercise was carried out last year just before the lockdown. No city has been included from West Bengal because of “data challenge”, the report said.

Shimla is most liveable among the cities having less than 10-lakh population across the country. The Queen of Hills has been bestowed this distinction in the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) survey, the results of which were announced today by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Out of the 114 competing cities in this category, Shimla has been placed at the top. “It’s a huge achievement and a matter of pride for the citizens as well as the state government,” said Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj.

To assess the progress being made in the cities, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had launched two assessment frameworks in 2019 - Ease of Living Index (EoLI) and Municipal Performance Index (MPI). Both these indices were designed to assess quality of life of the citizens in 100 Smart Cities and 14 other cities having population less than 10 lakh. The Ease of Living Index ranking is based on the assessment of four parameters - Quality of Life, Economic Ability, Sustainability and Citizen Perception. Out of 100 marks, Shimla logged a total of 60.90 to top the EoLI rankings. The MPI was assessed on five parameters – services, finance, technology, planning and governance. In Municipal Performance Index, Shimla has been placed 24, with a total of 43.71.

“The No. 1 ranking is the reflection of the development that has taken place in recent years in the state. Unprecedented development in the field of education, health, public works, and decline in the crime rate has added to the liveability of Shimla City,” said the UD Minister.

While the achievement is indeed remarkable, the authorities as well as citizens can’t lose sight of the teething problems the city continues to face, the most notable being traffic and parking issues. Once these problems are sorted, it will add immensely to the liveability index of the city.