Out of the 111 cities that were assessed in the Ease of Living Index, Pune topped the rankings with Navi Mumbai coming second followed by Greater Mumbai . File photo
CONSIDERED TO be one of the best cities to live in, Pune has now officially received the top overall rank among the 111 cities of the country considered in the “Ease of Living Index” released by the Centre on Monday.
However, there is a catch. Though the city has ranked top in the overall ratings, it doesn’t lead in any of the categories and ‘pillars’, indicating that the city is not the best in any of the categories and needs to overcome its shortcomings in almost all categories and ‘pillars’ to retain its position.
The Ease of Living Index — released by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry — labels the quality of life in cities across four ‘pillars’ and 15 categories using 78 indicators, of which 56 are core indicators and 22 are supporting indicators. The core indicators measure those aspects of ‘ease of living’ which are considered ‘essential’ urban services. The supporting indicators are used to measure adoption of innovative practices, which are considered desirable for enhancing ‘ease of living’.
Pune city ranks second in physical infrastructure whereas Greater Mumbai is on top. Pune has also been rated second best in the ‘reduced pollution’ category behind Ludhiana and ‘assured water supply’ category behind Erode. The city is in top 10 in 14 of the total 19 categories and ‘pillars’.
The worst rating of Pune city is in the category of ‘mixed land use and compactness’, where it stands at 49th position. The second bad rating has come under ‘safety and security’ category, where it has been ranked 25th among the 111 cities. Pune city has been ranked 23 in ‘housing and inclusiveness’ category. In ‘identity and culture’ category, the city ranks 14 while in ‘transportation and mobility’, it has bagged 12th rank.
Out of the 111 cities that were assessed in the Ease of Living Index, Pune topped the rankings with Navi Mumbai coming second followed by Greater Mumbai in the third place. The remaining cities in the top 10 include Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada and Bhopal.
The top positions in each of the sub-indices are occupied by the top five cities in the overall rankings: Navi Mumbai scores the highest in the institutional sub-index, Tirupati in social sub-index, Chandigarh in economic and Greater Mumbai in physical sub-index. Due to its high weightage, the physical sub-index influences the overall ranks the most. As the highest ranking city in the Ease of Living Index, Pune is also amongst the most consistent overall performing city across all ‘pillars’ — it is among the top 10 cities in all of the four sub-indices.
Social infrastructure, such as hospitals and public health services, primary and secondary schools, supporting cultural events, sporting events and emergency services create the conditions needed to promote the health and well-being of all city residents.
Access to and the reliability and quality of services available in the cities are key components for ease of living. In the social sub-index, Tirupati tops the list, Tiruchirappalli is ranked second best city in this sub-index followed by Navi Mumbai, Chandigarh and Pune.