On December 28, 2022, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’ and ‘City Beauty Competition’ during an event in New Delhi, Delhi. The initiatives and draft guidelines for the same were released by the Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, MoHUA.
- These two initiatives envisage taking India’s Urban Rejuvenation journey to next level.
About City Finance Rankings 2022:
i.It aims to evaluate, recognize and reward ULBs (Urban Local bodies) on the basis of 15 indicators across three key financial parameters viz. resource mobilization, expenditure performance and fiscal governance systems.
- It will motivate city/state officials and decision makers to implement municipal finance reforms by making further improvements.
ii.The cities will be ranked at the national level on the basis of their scores under the following four population categories:
- Above 4 million
- Between 1-4 million
- 100K to 1 million
- Less than 100,000.
iii.The top 3 cities in each population category will be recognized and rewarded at the national level, and state/state cluster.
iv.The ULBs can participate by submitting the required data/documents through the online facility created on www.cityfinance.in.
v.All 4500+ cities ULBs nationally will be encouraged to participate in the City Finance Rankings 2022.
About City Beauty Competition:
i.It aims to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces. Under this, wards and public places of cities will be judged on the following five broad pillars:
- Accessibility
- Amenities
- Activities
- Aesthetics
- Ecology.
ii.The most beautiful public places in cities viz. Waterfronts, Green spaces, tourist/heritage spaces and market/commercial places will be awarded first at the State and then shortlisted for award at the National level.
iii.Competing wards and cities can submit their entries on the city beauty portal which will be designed by the MoHUA’s knowledge partners – Administrative Staff College of India.
iv.Judgement will be done by the Jury.
Other schemes for urbanization in India:
i.Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), SBM 2.0
ii.Jan Andolan
iii.Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)
Recent Related News:
i.From November 4-6, 2022, the 15th edition of Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference & Expo 2022 held at Hotel Grand Hyatt , Kochi, Kerala which was jointly inaugurated by the Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA); and Chief Minister (CM) of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan.
ii.The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance (MoF); MoHUA; and the World Bank (WB) Group are jointly organising a 5-day focused workshop titled ‘Cities Creditworthiness Academy’ to create an enabling ecosystem for financing future cities of India. The 5-day workshop, from 14th to 18th November 2022, is organised at Hotel Lalit, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, Delhi.
About Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA):
Union Minister – Hardeep Singh Puri (Constituency – Uttar Pradesh)
Minister of State– Kaushal Kishore (Constituency – Mohanlalganj, Uttar Pradesh)
