Pune ranked best in Ease of Living Index, major metros not in top-10

While Chennai was placed 14th, Delhi was placed a lowly 65th. Kolkata refused to participate.

New Delhi: Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardip Singh Puri announced the latest Ease of Living Index on Monday and said that Pune had come out on top, followed by Navi Mumbai, Greater Mumbai, Tirupati and Chandigarh.

Interestingly, major metro cities of Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata did not figure in the top 10 list which saw Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijaywada and Bhopal as the other top-ranked cities. In the list, Delhi figures far down at the 65th spot while Chennai takes the 14th place. Puri said Kolkata refused to participate.

The Ease of Living Index ranks 111 cities across the country based on institutional, social, economic and physical parameters. "This was first launched as a litmus test to help assess the progress made in urban environment through various initiatives," said Puri.

Evaluation of the cities was done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators.

Globally, Indian cities lag far behind others even if surveys follow different guidelines and parameters. According to Mercer's 20th annual Quality of Living Survey released in March of this year, Vienna was ranked best for the ninth year in a row - among 231 cities. Auckland in New Zealand (3rd), Sydney (10th), Wellington (15th), Melbourne (16th), Perth (21st) and Singapore (25th) were the top-ranking cities from Asia-Pacific region in the list.

Even in most other similar surveys of global cities - like EIU's Global Liveability Ranking and Monocle's Quality of Live Survey, Indian cities fail to make their presence felt.