post news network
New Delhi, Jan 19: The Union ministry for urban development and housing Friday launched the Liveability Index Programme for 116 Indian cities, including Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.
Union Minister for Urban Development Hardeep Singh Puri made the announcement at a press conference at which a list of nine new Smart Cities was released. Under Liveability Index Programme, the 116 cities selected would be studied on 79 pre-defined indicators and ranked according to their liveability standards.
The ministry has, through an international bidding process, already selected global partner agencies that would carry out the assessment. The programme funded by The World Bank aims to rank these cities based on their institutional, social, economical and physical performance.
Agencies involved in the survey will gather all data available with government agencies and fill what gaps remain by generating data through dedicated studies. The cities would then be compared based on their performance under individual indicators.
The areas that the studies will focus on include the magnitude of government services made available online, the number of citizens using these services, hotel occupancy in these cities, coverage of females in school education, the prevalence of water and vector-borne diseases, the extent of crimes, extent of public transport, levels of pollution, and availability of open space, among other things.
Stakes Are High
Rajesh Agrawal, who will soon become Commerce Secretary, is in charge of India’s trade talks with the United States, which...
Read moreDetails
