Potholed Bengaluru is still ‘best city’

Potholed Bengaluru is still ‘best city’
BENGALURU


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Bengaluru is still the best place to live in the country. Though potholed roads and poor infrastructure have pulled down the city by a couple of notches on the best cities list compared with last year, global human resources consultancy firm Mercer still rates it as the best city in India followed by Mumbai, whose ratings fell since last year after 26/11.
The just released Mercer’s Quality of Living Global Cities Ranking-2009 pegged Bengaluru at 142, down by two points from last year, out of a sample survey of 215 cities from across the world.

Interestingly, this year’s rankings also identify cities with best infrastructure based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.

According to the Mercer Report, Vienna is the best city in the world and Baghdad at 215 has been rated as the worst and the most unsafe city. The other top cities after Vienna are Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland.

Mercer conducts an annual study to help multinational firms and governments to place their employees in the international job market based on the quality of living in the respective cities.

The report is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria for each city including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services.

The cities are compared to New York as the base city, with an index score of 100.

In India, New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai follow Bengaluru in terms of better quality of living for expatriates.

Mumbai’s image in the global positioning fell drastically from last year’s 142 to 148.

However, New Delhi has managed to maintain the same rank this year at the 145th place in the global list, while Chennai has been ranked at the 152nd place, the survey revealed.

According to Mercer’s information product solutions India business leader Gangapriya Chakraverti, when firms relocate executives from one country to another they need clear and objective information establishing quality of living differences between cities.

“Some are perceived to be safer, while others provide entertainment activities or more comprehensive medical services,” he said.