Shri. Durga Shanker Mishra
Cities are drivers of economic growth and important units of local governance within a nation. The development and growth of a nation, is influenced to a large extent by its cities. The Smart Cities concept relieson fostering a balanced confluence of two mega trends: Rapid GlobalUrbanization and Digital Technologies 4.0 revolution. These trends haveconsequences on our efforts to improve liveability for citizens, enhance human capital and transform the relationship between Government, Civil Society and Market Players in an environmentally, sustainable andinclusive manner.
The governance of cities is determined by the functioning of Municipalities. They are the key agents that provide the enablers into making a city ‘Smart’. With this view, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is launching the first ever Municipal Performance Index 2019 to assess and analyse the performance of Municipalities across the country in all 100 Smart Cities and million plus population cities, based on their defined set of functions. The assessment will examine the sectoral performance of Municipalities across a set of five verticals namely Services; Finance; Technology; Planning and Governance which include 20 sectors (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) and 100 indicators. The Municipal Performance Index will act as a guide to evidence-based policy making, catalyse action to achieve broader developmental outcomes including the Sustainable Development Goals, assess and compare the outcomes achieved by municipal bodies, givecitizens an insight into the functioning of local bodies and build a dialogue between the stakeholders.
An exercise of this scale would not have been possible without the phenomenal leadership and teamworkof officers of the Smart Cities Mission and supporting partners in designing such a comprehensive Assessment Framework. All of them deserve my appreciation.
