HYDERABAD: HYDERABAD, billed as one of the best places in the world to work, was ranked much below other cities in India in the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) and Municipal Performance Index (MPI) rankings released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday.
The Ministry released the EoLI and MPI rankings for 2020, in which Hyderabad ranked 24th and 17th respectively, in the category of cities with over one million population.
A senior official in the Municipal Administration Department, who did not want to be quoted, said he was baffled over the poor ranking at a time when Hyderabad stood number one for five years in a row since 2015 in the Mercer’s Quality of Living Index in India.
“Hyderabad was number one among all metros in last year’s Swachh rankings and it seems there is more to it than meets the eye for pushing it down in the EoLI. It is very unfortunate that such rankings are not based on the criteria of transparency and are always done in a subjective manner,” he said.
He added that it was weird how it could not even make it to at least the top 10.
“We would have understood had Hyderabad been in top three or five list,” he said. EoLI is an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development. The rankings were released in two categories — those with a population above a million and those with less than a million. Smaller cities such as Surat, Vadodara, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivili, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Raipur, Solapur and Pune performed better than Hyderabad in EoLI. The official said the list appeared rank-ridiculous, looking at the cities that have been listed above Hyderabad.
Of the 111 Indian cities surveyed for the EoLI, Hyderabad scored 55.40. Similarly, the city scored 49.08 in the MPI of the 51 cities. A total of 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise conducted in 2020.
In the category of less than one million population, Warangal stood at 19 and Karimnagar at 22 among 62 cities. Under the EoLI, Hyderabad scored 30.05 in economic ability, quality of life (51.28), sustainability (58.69) and citizen perception (70.70). In the MPI, it scored 59.81 in finance, planning (45.84), services (46.96), tech (33.63) and governance (55.56).
The EoLI provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India based on the quality of life, economic-ability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience.