On 24th September 2018, Athena organized a National Dissemination Workshop at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra, New Delhi to share the experience of conducting the country's first ever Ease of Living Assessment of 111 cities. The workshop was inaugurated by Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Honourable Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA. They highlighted the spirit of health competition among cities the Ministry seeks to drive through this initiative. The Honourable Minister pointed out that the 'Ease of Living' exercise has provided signal to the cities that need to pay more attention. Other officials that were active participants included: Shri Shiv Das Meena, Additional Secretary (AMRUT), Shri K. Sanjay Murthy, Additional Secretary (W&H) and Shri Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director - Smart Cities.
Ankit Chatri, Lead Consultant at Athena, presented the thinking towards the overall framework and approach for the next Ease of Living Index (2.0), wherein the focus will be on citizen-centric outcome indicators and robust data validation mechanisms based on the learning from the Ease of Living Index 2018.