Hyderabad: Telangana cities could not make it to the top 10 of the ease of living index list, while two cities in Andhra Pradesh secured fourth (Tirupati) and ninth (Vijayawada) spots. However, five cities from both the Telugu-speaking states — Tirupati, Karimanagar, Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhpatnam — have managed to make it to the top of the list in the Ease of Living framework which comprises segments namely institutional, social, economic and physical.
The ease of living index is an initiative of the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) to help cities assess their liveability vis-a-vis global and national benchmarks and encourage cities to move towards an ‘outcome-based’ approach to urban planning and management. It was decided in June 2017 to rank cities based on liveability parameters. The implementation of the assessment commenced formally on 19 January, 2018 covering 111 cities.
As far as ease of living index list is concerned no city from Telangana state could managed to secure a spot in top 10 slot. However, out of 111 cities across the country, Karimnagar got 11 rank and Hyderabad secured 27th spot.
The Ease of Living framework comprises four segments namely institutional, social, economic and physical which are further broken down into 15 categories and 78 indicators. Five Telugu cities have secured a spot in the top ten list of the institutional segment — Tirupati stood second, Karimanagar third, Hyderabad fourth, Vijayawada ninth and Visakhpatnam tenth. Two cities from AP appeared in the top ten list, with Tirupati topping the list and Vijayawada in the ninth rank.
Only one city from both the Telugu speaking states was in the economic segment in the top ten list. Vijayawada got tenth rank (economic segment) while Visakhapatnam was the only city to secure a place in the top 10 slots in the physical segment. In the city population typology-wise category, Amaravati from AP (population above 0.5 million and less than 1 million) and Karimnagar (population less than 0.5 million) from TS appeared in the list.
The evaluation of cities has been done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators with the institutional and social pillars carrying 25 points each, 5 points for the economic pillar and 45 points for the physical pillar. The whole exercise is being carried out on a mass scale and began with a National Orientation Workshop to orient city officials on the assessment framework. It was followed by 33 state-level workshops spread across all 36 states and Union Territories.
A data entry portal and a monitoring dashboard for real time update on progress was established. The cities submitted data on more than 50,000 points. The secondary audit of 10,000 documents, physical audit of 14,000 units and survey of more than 60,000 citizens was done which led to the finalisation of the Ease of living index.
The Ease of Living assessment standards are closely linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will provide a strong impetus to India’s efforts for systematic tracking progress of SDGs in urban areas. Of the 17 SDG goals, 8 goals are directly linked to India’s ease of living assessment framework with SDG 11 that is aimed at making our cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable being measured through a set of 30 indicators.
