World Bank to come out with "ease of living" index

The World Bank Group will bring out an ‘ease of living’ index that will rank cities globally.
●    On the World Bank Group's Doing Business index, India had suggested that the Bank needs to take into account the reforms undertaken across the country and not just in two cities (Mumbai and Delhi) as is being considered currently for the rankings.
●    World Bank country director for India is Junaid Ahmad.
●    The index could include categories on social inclusion, cost of living, public transport, housing, education, health, environment-friendliness, crime/safety, governance and corruption, etc.
●    On the criticism regarding the World Bank Doing Business Report this year ranking India a lowly 130th despite several reforms carried out by the government, Mr. Ahmad said the rankings did not capture important reforms, including the laws on Goods & Services Tax (GST) and insolvency & bankrupcty as they did not come before the cut off date for this year.
●    Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das had recently said that the law on bankruptcy & insolvency is likely to be effective by this December-end.