Bengaluru & Shimla Ranked As The ‘Most Liveable Cities’ In India

• On Thursday, the tech city in India, Bengaluru topped the list of 111 cities in the government’s latest ‘’Ease of Living Index’ followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore and Vadodara. Shimla was ranked top in the category of cities with a ‘population less than a million’.

• The index was released by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

• The Municipal Council of New Delhi topped the ‘Municipal Performance Index’ list in the ‘less than a million people’ category. Indore topped the ‘Municipal Performance Index’’ in the million-plus population category followed by Tirupati, Gandhinagar, Karnal, Salem, Tiruppur, Bilaspur, Udaipur, Jhansi and Tirunelveli.

• PM Modi has been stressing on the ease of living along with the ease of doing business, as a key policy priority of his government. The ranking of cities has assumed significance in shaping government policies and determining expenditure priorities, in the view of PM’s call.

• 111 cities, in total, had participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted in 2020. The first edition of the assessment was launched in 2018.

• In the index the cities are ranked based on 15 evaluation criteria including governance, identity and culture, education, health and many more.