india

Updated: Sep 04, 2019 09:09 IST

Indian cities have not fared too well in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index for 2019, released Wednesday, with both Delhi and Mumbai sliding down ranks relative to last year.

The EIU’s index ranks cities by five headline criteria. Stability and culture & environment are the two most important categories, weighted equally at 25% of the total. Healthcare and infrastructure are also matched at 20%, with education coming in last with a 10% weighting.

New Delhi dropped six places to 118, from 112 last year, as there’s been an increase in petty crime cases over the past year, as well as recording some of the world’s worst air quality levels, the report says. Mumbai also fell in this year’s index, by two places to 119, from 117 last year, as a result of a downgrade in its culture category.

“Few cities in Asia have seen major changes to their score over the past year, with the exceptions of Colombo, which has seen its stability score fall following the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, and New Delhi, which dropped six places in the ranking relative to last year. The Indian capital has seen an increase in petty crime cases over the past year, as well as recording some of the world’s worst air quality levels. The 2018 update to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Ambient Air Quality Database shows that New Delhi currently boasts the sixth highest annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter among cities around the world,” the report states.

Another Asian city Dhaka Dhaka remains the third lowest ranked city in the index, and the weakest performer in Asia. Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea (135th, 41) and Karachi in Pakistan (136th, 40.9) are the other two Asian cities that appear in the bottom ten cities in the ranking.

“Reflecting the diversity of Asia, these cities all have fairly different characteristics. Dhaka is relatively stable but has very poor health provision and outcomes, and very weak infrastructure. Karachi has very high crime rates and gang violence, but education is considered fairly strong and its infrastructure score is passable.” the report adds.

Among the toppers are Vienna and Melbourne who have been neck and neck in the EIU survey for years, but the Austrian capital also regularly tops a larger ranking of cities by quality of life compiled by consulting firm Mercer.