Delhi has emerged as the most liveable city in the country followed by Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, according to a survey by the Institute for Competitiveness and industry chamber CII.
The survey, which was released on Monday, is based on a number of factors ranging from econo-mic environment and standard of living, socio-cultural environment, education, health and medical standards, natural environment, public service and recreational possibilities among others.
Among the cities that were seen to be lagging behind were Faridabad, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Patna, Vishakapatnam and Jamshedpur.
In terms of health and medical standards, Kozhikode, Trivandrum and Kochi in Kerala are the most notable ones. Surprisingly Mumbai comes only at number 12, while Delhi and Bengaluru are placed at 17 and 18 positions, respectively. Ahmedabad and Bengaluru are among the worst in this category.
About 11 cities have been identified where health and medical standards are of great concern. These are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumnai, Noida, Patna and Pune.
Despite leading industries pulling out of West Bengal in the last few years, the city of joy? Kolkata?has done reasonably well in segment cities with a good economic environment at number 5. Delhi has fared the best in this segment.
The list of cities with the most-planned environment also saw Delhi emerge at the top. As far as housing issues are concerned Coimbatore, Jaipur and Kochi have fared the worst, closely followed by Kolkata.
Interestingly, Delhi, with all its crime-related stories being aired daily on TV sets, has turned out to be the safest city in the country. However, the survey adds that one reason why Delhi could be unsafe is its proximity to crime-infested areas like Noida and Gurgaon. The list includes Bhopal, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in a sequence.
Mumbai, the financial hub of the country and a home to a large section of India Inc, has emerged as the city with the best socio-political environment, followed by Delhi, Kolkata, Goa, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyde-rabad. Significantly, regular state-called lockouts and bandhs in West Bengal have not affected Kolkata?s ranking.
In the field of education, the leaders are Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon and Kolkata. Vishakapatnam, Nagpur and Coimbatore are among the worst. What has worked for the Capital is the fact that a child has access to various educational boards at an early age.
As far as finding the right home at an affordable rate is concerned, Gurgaon surprisingly leads the race. Delhi, Bengaluru and Chandigarh come next.
The survey collated data from government archives and was collected over a period of time.