Govt plans liveability index of 116 cities

Ministry officials said the firms were chosen through an international bidding process.

Puri said the programme would be funded by the World Bank, and the assessment would be of relative nature, with the 116 cities graded against each other.

Currently, the EIU’s ‘Global Liveability Ranking’ for 140 cities includes only two Indian cities — Mumbai and Delhi. As per the 2015 index, both cities fare poorly, with Delhi at 100th spot and Mumbai at 115th. The ranking is based on parameters like stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.

Delhi scores a high 75/100 on education, but a low 55/100 on health. Mumbai ranks low on infrastructure (51/100). Melbourne has consistently figured as the most liveable city, while Damascus in conflict-torn Syria is shown to be the least liveable.

In June last year, former Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu had launched a set of ‘Liveability Standards’ relevant to Indian cities, with 79 indicators in 15 categories for measuring institutional, social, economic and physical aspects that affect quality of life. These included education, healthcare, roads, mobility, jobs, grievance redressal, pollution, emergency response, green open spaces, as well as cultural and entertainment opportunities.

Officials said that Economist portal would be used to spatially map the data, and the Liveability Index outputs would serve as a database for decision making on urban policy and planning. The groundwork would include holding capacity building workshops to equip local level officials in collating and analysing urban statistics, visits to all cities, and citizen surveys.