Contrary to the belief that Delhi is far behind when it comes to liveability, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) have come up with a study that places Delhi at the top among Indian cities in the quality of living.
Coming close on the list are Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune ranked 2nd to 8th in the same order.
The Liveability Index 2010 was released by M Ramachandran, secretary, urban development ministry.
Speaking on the occasion, Ramachandran said: “The ancient mega-cities of yesteryears are today emerging into mega-regions like the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). This calls for anticipated planning for transportation, infrastructure, environment, equitable access to resources and facilitating energy savings.”
Ironically, NCR has not been able to keep pace with Delhi’s development. Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad have been ranked 9th, 27th and 32nd, respectively.
The report was brought out after a study on 37 cities, ranked on the basis of eight parameters —demography, education, health and medical standards, safety, housing, socio-cultural and political environment, economic environment and natural built and planned environment.
An objective analysis was conducted by employing more than 300 indicators on a 10-year timeline across 20 constituent sub-parameters. This data-driven approach is a distinctive mark of reports by IFC, wherein no subjective opinion surveys are resorted to.
In contrast with media reports that have been questioning safety in Delhi, the IFC report puts Delhi as the safest city, while Bhopal and Bangalore follow. Delhi also tops the list in domains of education and economic environment, followed by Mumbai and Bangalore. On the education front, the poorest performers are Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, and Vadodara.
Mumbai tops in socio-political environment, followed by Delhi, Kolkata, Goa and Chennai. The city also leads in city-planning, followed by Chennai and Delhi.
Delhi also beat Mumbai in economic environment, while Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad were ranked 3rd to 7th in the same order. Patna (36th) and Visakhapatnam (37th) were lowest ranked in this category.
