Ease of Living Index and Municipal performance index

Why in news?

• Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Housing and Urban Affairs announced the release of the final rankings of Ease of Living Index (EoLI) 2020 and the Municipal Performance Index (MPI) 2020.

About the index:

• The rankings under Ease of Living Index 2020 were announced for 111 cities categorised into those with a population of more than a million, and cities with less than a million people.
• Bengaluru emerged as the top performer in the Million+ category, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Surat.
• In the Less than Million category, Shimla was ranked the highest in ease of living, followed by Bhubaneshwar.
• The Ease of Living Index (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.
• The assessment also incorporates the residents' view on the services provided by city administration through a Citizen Perception Survey.
• It examines the outcomes that lead to existing living conditions through pillars of Quality of Life, Economic Ability, Sustainability, spanning across 13 categories of -Education, Health, Housing and Shelter, WASH and SWM, Mobility, Safety and Security, Recreation, Level of Economic Development, Economic Opportunities, Environment, Green Spaces, and Buildings, Energy Consumption, and City Resilience, that account for 70% of the overall outcome while citizen perception accounts for 30%.

Municipal performance index:

•  MPI 2020 has classified municipalities based on their population- Million+  and Less than Million Population.
• In the Million+ category, Indore has emerged as the highest ranked municipality, followed by Surat and Bhopal.
• In the Less than Million category, New Delhi Municipal Council has emerged as the leader, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.
•  The MPI examined the sectoral performance of 111 municipalities across five verticals which comprise of 20 sectors and 100 indicators in all totality.
• The five verticals under MPI are Services, Finance, Policy, Technology and Governance.
•  The Municipal Performance Index (MPI) was launched as an accompaniment to the Ease of Living Index and seeks to examine local government practice in municipalities across areas of services, finance, policy, technology and governance.
• It seeks to simplify and evaluate the complexities in local governance practice and promote the ethos of transparency and accountability.             
• The Ease of Living Index encapsulates the outcome indicators while the Municipal Performance Index captures the enabling input parameters.
• The framework for these assessments were prepared by MoHUA with the Institute for Competitiveness as the knowledge partner.

Prelims Question
Consider the following statements regarding Ease of Living Index (EoLI) 2020:
1.It has been published by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
2.Bengaluru is the top performer in the Million+ category in the index.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to the Prelims Question