Udaipur Municipality (UMC) scored 47.77 points and has ranked 8th in the first Municipal Performance Index (MPI) Assessment undertaken by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for the year 2020. The list was released in an online event by Hardeep Puri, Minister of State (Independent) Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). The final rankings include cities ranked per the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) and an add on this year was the Municipal Performance Index. The first position among municipalities with less than 1 million population was secured by New Delhi Municipal Corporation, with 52.92 points.

Udaipur is the only city in Rajasthan to rank in the top 10 in any category - be it cities under 1 million or more than 1 million population. Jaipur however, was ranked 19th in the MPI for cities with a population above 1 million. 111 municipalities participated in the assessment exercise conducted in 2020. Jodhpur was ranked 21st and Jaipur 23rd in the Ease of Living Index for cities with a population over 1 million.

In the Ease of Living Index (cities under population of 1 million), Udaipur (50.25) ranked 48th, while Ajmer (54.89) took the 12th position. Ajmer Municipality, meanwhile, has secured 41st spot in the MPI 2020 for cities under 1 million population. 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise conducted in 2020.

What is the Municipal Performance Index (MPI)

The assessment framework under MPI 2020 ranks municipality performance based on five verticals, viz. Finance, Governance, Policy, Services and Technology. It comprises of 20 sectors and 100 indicators in totality. 111 municipalities listed for this assessment exercise in 2020. For cities having more than 1 million population, Indore emerged the winner, followed by Surat and Bhopal. For municipalities under 1 million population, the NDMC took first place, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar. MPI seeks to simplify and evaluate the complexities in local governance practice and promote the ethos of transparency and accountability.

What is the Ease of Living Index

The Ease of Living Index (EoLI) is an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development. It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India based on quality of life, economic-ability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience. The assessment also incorporates the residents' view on the services provided by city administration through a Citizen Perception Survey.

Both the indices represent an attempt to gauge the performance of cities across India on various parameters of urban living. The Ease of Living Index encapsulates the outcome indicators while the Municipal Performance Index captures the enabling input parameters. These indices provide a holistic assessment of cities based on their efforts to cultivate better quality of life, create infrastructure, and address challenges of urbanization.

Learnings gathered from these indices can help the government identify gaps, tap into potential opportunities, and increase efficiency in local governance to improve lives of citizens and fulfil broader development outcomes. The framework for these assessments were prepared by MoHUA with the Institute for Competitiveness as the knowledge partner.

Expanding the scope for the EoLI framework in order to make it more robust, a Municipal Performance Index assessment was also undertaken for the first time in the country. Whereas, the Ease of Living Index measures an outcome of the indicator, Municipal Performance Index focuses on the factors that produce those outcomes. The latter serves in determining elements that prevent efficient local governance in service delivery mechanisms, planning, financial systems, and governance practice.

The Municipal Performance Index is an effort to assess and analyse the performance of Indian municipalities based on their defined set of functions. The responsibilities of a municipality span across a range of verticals that include provision of basic pubic services to more complex domains like urban planning. The salient features of MPI are given below.

• The Municipal Performance Index provides a granular understanding of a municipalities' functionalities and the extent of their development and capabilities. Through the index, citizens can better understand their local government administration, which in turn builds transparency and generates trust among key stakeholders.
• The framework covers 20 varied sectors vis. Education, Health, Water & Wastewater, SWM & Sanitation, Registration & Permits, Infrastructure, Revenue Management, Expenditure Management, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Decentralisation, Digital Governance, Digital Access, Digital Literacy, Plan Preparation, Plan Implementation, Plan Enforcement, Transparency & Accountability, Human Resource, Participation and Effectiveness.

Source of Information: PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU