New Delhi emerges to be the most competitive city in India

NEW DELHI, India – Similar to the previous years, India City Competitiveness Report 2013 in its Sixth edition evaluates the 50 Indian cities.

NEW DELHI, India – Similar to the previous years, India City Competitiveness Report 2013 in its Sixth edition evaluates the 50 Indian cities. Its quest is to identify the most competitive city of India and track their performance year-on-year. Kota is a new entrant in the list of 50 Indian cities assessed on the India City Competitiveness Index 2013. In addition, some of the reasons for changes in the rankings of cities are; improved methodology, inclusion of few more detailed indicators and updating of existing data indicators.

The India City Competitiveness Report 2013 is based on the Microeconomic Diamond Model laid down by Michael E Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School. The model is widely accepted across the world, and it assesses the competitiveness of a region or a domain, based on specific benchmarks. The model is based on four pillars of competitiveness that are factor conditions, demand conditions, context for strategy and rivalry and supporting and related industries. These pillars are further divided into 12 sub-pillars wherein factor conditions split into 6 sub-indices, and other three are distributed into 2 sub-indices disjointedly, which in turn are measured through indicators. All these pillars and sub-indices are directly or indirectly related to one another and help to assess the different dimensions of competitiveness. India City Competitiveness Report 2013 assesses the vital details of a city on a set of well-defined indicators.

New Delhi grabbed the title of the most competitive city of India. This is the fourth time in a row that the capital city of the country has demonstrated such a phenomenal performance on almost all the pillars of competitiveness. The obvious reasons that can be stated are good governance, high GDP and better infrastructure. Though, it still lags behind on the administrative sub-pillar which can act as a sign of worry for the city in the near-future.

The city competitiveness index 2013 witnessed the same set of the top ten cities with a little shuffle as Bengaluru swapped its place with Noida. Mumbai, similar to last year is stable at second rank and has performed well on most of the pillars. It is simply unbeatable on the factor condition and demand condition pillars. Chennai is spotted at 3rd place and can be touted as the most innovative city, going by its performance. It is followed by Hyderabad at 4th, Kolkata at 5th and Gurgaon at 6th. On the index, Noida beats Bengaluru to grab the 7th place as it performed relatively better on physical infrastructure and business indicators. Bengaluru thus holds the 8th rank. The latter two cities are stable on their position, Pune at 9th and Ahmedabad at 10th rank.

Some of the south Indian cities like Coimbatore, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Madurai have jumped upwards on the index and can be spotted in the slot of 11-20. All these cities have done well on the physical infrastructure sub-pillar as compared to last year; clearly, showcasing their potential and significant improvement in the various domains of competitiveness.

An in-depth study of the cities states that the cities considered being small such as Rajkot, Faridabad, Meerut, Dehradun and Shimla are no more underdeveloped. Instead, these cities are the budding growth centers of the economy which are moving up on the city competitiveness index at a fast pace. They are adding up to the overall competitiveness of the country with the help of their distinctive and untapped potential. To exemplify, Faridabad and Meerut proximity to the National Capital Region (NCR) and their internal growth has resulted Faridabad to become the next most desired business destination and Meerut as the popular education hub. The analysis also illustrates that few cities are loosing their charm in comparison to above-mentioned cities. To name a few, Indore slipped to 23rd, Mysore to 26th, Ludhiana to 32nd and so on.

In India, there are only few prominent cities which till date have entered into global rankings. In other words, Indian cities still have a long way to go in terms of overall development and to compete with an international city. There should be a sync between the different aspects of the city like governance, infrastructure so that the Indian cities develop in a sustainable manner by complimenting their own inherent strengths. The Indian cities need to map their strengths, improve upon their weak areas, explore new possible domains and then create distinctive advantage for themselves. They need to implement a strategical model around their distinguishing image and then increase their competitiveness levels.

The metro cities of the country are the most attractive investment destinations, but they also need to resolve their infrastructure, as well as, governance related issues. Improving upon these parameters can help them to leverage their strengths and transform themselves into successful cities. Likewise, the other lesser known cities need to innovate, develop further and improve upon the quality of trade as well as living so as to develop uniformly and strengthen their core domains.

Highlights

New Delhi is stable at its number one position and bags the position of most competitive city of India

Slight shuffles are witnessed in the ranking of the top ten contenders in the index wherein rank of Bengaluru is swapped by Noida

Cities like Kochi, Surat, Nashik, Jaipur and Indore have performed well on the city competitiveness index and are fast running upwards on the index

Some of the south Indian cities have performed well on few sub-pillars of competitiveness, as a result, an upswing is witnessed in their competitiveness rankings

Please note that city competitiveness index is a methodological computation of a city’s numeric data indicators, encompassing different dimensions, which henceforth, reflects the performance of a city. It does not assess a city based on just one parameter.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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