News: Delhi to beat Mumbai, soon

(FE 10/04/2006) New Delhi - While Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai hovered around the 150-mark, Zurich emerged as the top city in Mercer’s annual World-wide Quality of Living Survey, scoring 108.2 points, ahead of Geneva and Vancouver. Iraq’s capital city Baghdad was ranked the lowest in the survey.

This survey by Mercer, covering more than 350 cities helps governments and multinational companies place employees on international assignments. Each city is evaluated based on 39 criteria, which include political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York, seen as the base city, having an index score of 100.

Though cities in India generally rank lower than their Chinese counterparts, they are showing signs of development. “The rankings for some Indian cities have improved from last year, primarily due to India’s improved political relationships with neighbouring countries. Significant investments from multinationals setting up operations in India may prompt further improvements, boost economic growth and contribute to economic stability,” Gangapriya Chakraverti, business leader, human capital product solutions at Mercer India said.

In Asia, Singapore ranks 34th (score 102.5) followed by Tokyo(102.3). Hong Kong’s modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport, which is considered one of the best in the world, has pushed it’s ranking up from the 70th to the 68th position with a score of 95.4. In China, Shanghai emerged the top-ranking city at 103rd place.

Although Mumbai remains India's most livable city at 150 (151 in 2005), the North Indian bastion of Delhi has equalled it with a similar rank of 150 (153 in 2006) indicating that the capital city is becoming both a business and political hub of the country as well as offering a great gateway to India for those coming from abroad.

Bangalore is at 153 and Chennai at 160.

According to the survey, almost half of the top 30 scoring cities were in Western Europe. In this region, Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in the 4th position with a score of 107.5. Other highly-rated cities include Dusseldorf (107.2), Frankfurt (107.0) and Munich (106.8) in positions 6th, 7th and 8th respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, scoring 86.8 points.

London is UK’s highest-ranking city and is stable at position 39 (score 101.2). Two other UK cities covered in the survey are Birmingham and Glasgow both scoring 98.3.