Why in News?

•   Andhra Pradesh has topped the charts among States in terms of “Ease of Living Index” rankings launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
• It was followed by Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.

Ease of Living Index:

•   The Ease of Living Index is a transformative initiative of the MoHUA to help the cities assess their liveability vis-à-vis national and global benchmarks.
• The Index is aimed to encourage all cities to move towards an ‘outcome-based’ approach to urban planning and management and promote healthy competition among cities.
•   It seeks to assist cities in undertaking a 360-degree assessment of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• The MoHUA released the first ever ‘Ease of Living Index’ covering 111 Indian cities on 13 August, 2018, which serves as a litmus test to help assess the progress made in cities through various initiatives.
•   All cities were evaluated out of 100.

Parameters of the Index:

• The ‘physical’ pillar (infrastructure) was given the highest weightage of 45, while institutional (governance) and social were weighted 25 each. Economy was weighted 5.
• The framework comprised four pillars namely Institutional, Social, Economic and Physical which are further broken down into 78 indicators across 15 categories.
• These include governance, identity and culture, education, health, safety and security, economy, affordable housing, land use planning, public open spaces, transportation and mobility, assured water supply, waste-water management, solid waste management, power, and quality of environment.