Why in News?

• To help assess the progress made in cities through various initiatives and empower them to use evidence to plan, implement & monitor their performance, two Assessment Frameworks, viz. Ease of LivingIndex (EoLI) and Municipal Performance Index (MPI) 2019 have been launched by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs.

Ease of Living Index and Municipal Performance Index:

• Both these indices are designed to assess quality of life of citizens in 100 Smart Cities and 14 other Million Plus Cities.

Municipal Performance Index:

• With the Municipal Performance Index 2019, the Ministry has sought to assess the performance of municipalities based on five enablers namely Service, Finance, Planning, Technology and Governance which have been further divided into 20 sectors which will be evaluated across 100 indicators.
• This will help Municipalities in better planning and management, filling the gaps in city administration, and improving the liveability of cities for its citizens.

Ease of Living Index:

• Ease of Living Index is aimed at providing a holistic view of Indian cities – beginning from the services provided by local bodies, the effectiveness of the administration, the outcomes generated through these services in terms of the liveability within cities and, finally, the citizen perception of these outcomes.
• The key objectives of the Ease of Living Index are four-folds, viz.
• Generate information to guide evidence-based policy making
• Catalyse action to achieve broader developmental outcomes including the SDG’
• Assess and compare the outcomes achieved from various urban policies and schemes.
• Obtain the perception of citizens about their view of the services provided by the city Administration.
• EoLI 2019 will facilitate the assessment of ease of living of citizens across three pillars: Quality of Life, Economic Ability and Sustainability which are further divided into 14 categories across 50 indicators.

Citizen Perception Survey:

• For the first time, as part of the Ease of Living Index Assessment, a Citizen Perception Survey is being conducted on behalf of the Ministry (which carries 30% of the marks of the Ease of Living Index).
• This is a very important component of the assessment exercise as it will help in directly capturing perception of citizens with respect to quality of life in their cities. This survey, which is being administered both online and offline, has commencedfrom 1^st February 2020 and will continue till 29^th February 2020.
• The offline version involving face-to-face interviews will commence on the 1st of February and will run parallel to the on-line versions. The same is being promoted through bulk SMS push as well as extensive coverage in social media.