New Delhi: There has been a debatein public domain related to the rankings of Mumbai and Delhi between the Ease of Living Index of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) released on13th August, 2018 and the Global Liveability Index released by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), on 14 August, 2018. The debate primarily centred around the fact that while Greater Mumbai (117) ranked below Delhi (112) in the Global Liveability Index of the EIU, the ranks of the two cities were in the reverse orderat 3 and 65 respectively in the Ease of Living Index released by MoHUA.
| Ranking Source | Greater Mumbai rank | Delhi rank |
| Ease of Living | 3 | 65 |
| Global Liveability Index* | 117 | 112 |
*The EIU’s liveability work refers to the metropolitan areas so the EIU report refers
to New Delhiwhere Ease of Living Index refers to a larger urban agglomerationunder NCT.
COMPARATIVE ANNALYSIS
A careful look at the detailshelps in understanding the different positions of these cities in the respective indices.
- Ease of Living Index of MoHUA looks at Delhi as not only New Delhi but an urban agglomerationof around 1488 sq. kms. comprising the Municipal Corporations limits of East, South, North and NewDelhi. Global Liveability Index looks at New Delhi only. Hence, the geographical areas and populationcovered for Delhi is different in both the indices and not comparable as such.
- There are different criteria with different weightages in both the indices. Every city has beenassigned a rating of relative comfort over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors in 5 broadcategories namely stability, health care, cultural andenvironmental, education and infrastructure inthe global liveability index. A total of 78 indicators—56 core indicators and 22 supportive indicatorsacross 15 thematic categories namely governance, identity and culture, education, health, safetyand security, economy, affordable housing, land use planning, public open spaces,transportationand mobility, assured water supply, waste-water management, solid waste management, power,and quality of environment are part of the Ease of Living Index.
- These 15 categories are thenbracketed into four pillars of institutional, social, economic and physical. A careful look at the variousindicators covered under both the indices clearly shows that there are very few points ofconvergence and this can be ascribed to the different methodologies and largely to the different backgrounds in which both the indices are prepared.
