Andhra Pradesh tops Ease of Living Index rankings under AMRUT

Andhra Pradesh has topped Ease of Living Index rankings under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation). It was followed by Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The three states were awarded best-performing states at National Dissemination Workshop on Ease of Living Index, 2018 held in New Delhi.

AMRUT

It is an urban transformation scheme with the focus of the urban renewal projects to establish infrastructure that could ensure adequate robust sewerage networks and water supply. It aims at ensuring robust sewage networks, water supply and other infrastructure to improve the quality of life of people in urban areas.

Ease of Living Index

The index was conceived by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in June 2017. It aims to help cities assess their liveability vis-a-vis global and national benchmarks and encourage them to move towards ‘outcome-based’ approach to urban planning and management.
It was launched to rank 116 cities that are smart city contenders, capital cities and cities with population of 1 million plus based on the liveability parameters. The first edition of index released in January 2018 had ranked 111 Indian cities and was topped by Pune.
It captures quality of life based on data collected from urban local bodies on four parameters, which were further broken down into 15 categories. It seeks to help cities undertake 360-degree assessment of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
The four parameters include institutional (governance), social (identity, education, health, security), economic ( economy, employment) and physical factors (waste water and solid waste management, pollution, housing/ inclusiveness, mixed land use, power and water supply, transport, public open spaces).  Institutional and social parameters carry 25 points each, physical factors have weightage of 45 points and economic factors 5 points totalling to 100 mark scale on which cities were evaluated.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2018