City Liveability Index

Cities with new found confidence, awareness, enthusiasm and competitive spirit are driving urban transformation which is crucial for Transformation of India. A sense of healthy competition is being promoted among cities and towns in the country to focus their attention on improving governance and infrastructure availability.

In yet another major initiative, the Ministry of Urban Development on June 23 launched the ‘City Liveability Index’ for measuring the quality of life in 116 major cities including smart cities, capital cities and cities with a population of above one million each. A rule based framework has been introduced to ensure objective selection of cities and allocation of central funds without any discretion and discrimination.

The Index is a Common Minimum Reference Framework to enable the cities know where they stand in terms of quality of life and the interventions required to improve the same. Cities will be assessed on 15 core parameters relating to Governance, social infrastructure pertaining to education, health and safety and security, economic aspects and physical infrastructure like housing, open spaces, land use, energy and water availability, solid waste management, pollution etc.

In a first of its kind Index to be introduced in the country, cities will be assessed on a comprehensive set of 79 parametres to capture the extent and quality of infrastructure including availability of roads, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open and green spaces, cultural and entertainment opportunities etc. After selecting the agency for undertaking this assessment next month, data collection will be completed in the next about six months.

The Ministry of Urban Development today disbursed Rs.500 cr as incentive to 16 States that performed well in implementing urban reforms during 2016-17. Progress in respect of reforms like e-governance, Audit of accounts, Tax revision policies and extent of tax revenue collection, Energy and Water Audit, Establishing State Level Financial Intermediaries for resource mobilization, Credit Rating etc., was taken into account.

The reform incentive fund for the next three financial years will be increased from the present allocation of Rs 900cr to Rs 10,000cr in order to promote next generation reforms, which could bring about a substantial difference to urban governance and service delivery and resource mobilization by urban local bodies.