Prelims: Current events of national and international importance | Governance
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President of India honoured India’s cleanest cities at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025–26 held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
- Swachh Survekshan Awards – These are annual national honours presented by the Government of India to recognise the cleanest cities, towns, and states across the country.
- It is the world’s largest urban sanitation and cleanliness survey.
- Launched in – 2016 as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban (SBM-U).
- Organised by – Conducted by the Department of Urban Development (DoUD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
- Theme – “Swachhata Ki Nayi Pehel – Badhayein Haath, Karein Safai Saath”.
- Participation – Over 4,751 cities evaluated, with 2.70 crore citizens providing feedback
- Total Awards & Categories – This year, 60 national awards have been announced under 5 categories -
- Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ)
- Clean Cities of Super Swachh League
- Swachh Shehar in 5 population categories
- Swachh River Front Town
- Swachh Coastal Town
- Clean Himalayan City
- State First Swachh City
- Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) were assessed across 43 indicators covering 10 critical domains.
Key winners
- Top 3 Clean Cities of Super Swachh League – Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai, Gujarat’s Surat and Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada.
- Top Swachh Shehar – Marking the rise of a new generation of clean cities, as India’s top Swachh Shehar in the million-plus population category
- GVMC Visakhapatnam,
- Jabalpur and
- Lucknow.
Progress achieved by Swachh Bharat Mission since 2014, that urban waste processing has increased from 16% to 80%, while door-to-door waste collection coverage has risen from 44% to over 96%.
- Rise in urban India – A strong upward momentum across urban India, with over 350 ULBs improving their position by more than 500 ranks.
- Smaller cities have emerged as key drivers of this transformation, as 1,700+ ULBs with populations below 50,000 improved their rankings compared to 2024–25.
- Top 3 Swachh Shehar Jodi award – Joint performance and collaborative efforts of both cities under the Swachh Shehar Jodi initiative with the motive of Each One - Teach One.
- Mentee cities showed sharp gains, with visible cleanliness jumping from 48% to 70% and door-to-door waste collection rising from 52% to 74%.
- Mentor city Ahmedabad & Mentee city Sanand,
- Mentor Indore & Mentee Deopalpur and
- Mentor Tirupati & Mentee Kuppam.
- Expanded coverage – For the first time, the award expanded its coverage to include the Hills and Himalayan cities as well as riverfront and coastal towns.
- Top 3 Clean Himalayan Cities
- Rudrapur in Uttarakhand,
- Jammu & Shopian in J&K.
- Top 3 ranks for the Swachh River Front Town
- Rewa (MP),
- Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) &
- Varanasi (UP) consecutively,
- Award for Swachh Coastal Town – Odisha’s Puri, Kerala’s Alappuzha and Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri.
- State First Swachh City Award – It was conferred on 30 top-performing cities, to recognise and reward excellence across States and Union Territories.
- Tarakeswar emerged as the best-performing urban local body in West Bengal.
- Budgam received the State First Swachh City Award for Jammu & Kashmir.
- Union Territories have been classified into two categories for awards:
- Up to 5 ULBs and
- More than 5 ULBs.
- Scale & Impact – Highlighted the growing scale and impact of Swachh Survekshan, which has expanded from 73 cities in 2016 to 4,751 cities in 2025–26.
- 2.70 crore citizens provided feedback during this year's survey, while over 1,700 smaller cities improved their rankings and more than 350 cities registered improvements of over 500 positions.
Reference
PIB | Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26
