Delhi top among Indian cities in competitiveness ranking

A report by an international think tank released today has ranked India's capital as the most competitive city in the country for the third straight time, with the commercial hub of Mumbai retaining the second spot.

Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, in that order make up the rest of the top five in rankings of the `India City Competitiveness Report - 2012', compiled by the Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) that conducts studies in the area for use by businesses and governments.

"Faridabad, with its high growth, has drastically improved in its ranking and holds the 29th spot. Similarly, Guwahati recorded a wide improvement in its position," says the report, unveiled today to coincide with Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien's visit to Delhi.

The fifth edition of the India City Competitiveness Report is based on a model developed by distinguished management guru Michael E Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University professor based at Harvard Business School.

According to the report, New Delhi had managed to demonstrate a phenomenal growth over a period of time by balancing demand and development in equal measure. The two areas it was found lagging were administrative and institutional support.

The report also says that Noida, another city with close proximity to New Delhi, was now competing with metros, even as Pune and Ahmedabad, with very high potential got pushed down a few notches, but managed to remain in the 10 slots.

As regards smaller cities, while Coimbatore, Mysore, Madurai and Guwahati moved up, Surat, Lucknow, Agra and Allahabad slipped in their rankings.

"Undoubtedly, Indian cities have the required potential to make their mark across the globe. This is clearly evident with high urbanisation rate of these cities and by the trend of their growth," says the report.

"However, it is required that Indian cities work on their strong areas and use it constructively to attract people from different genres. They should build a brand of their own and not follow some other global city.''

Porter's model rests on four pillars - the factor conditions, demand conditions, context for strategy and rivalry, and the quality of supporting and related industries. There are further divisions of 12 sub-pillars within these, to give information on 50 top cities.

According to IFC chair Amit Kapoor, cities were the drivers of any economy and supported the growth of states and eventually that of the country. Over the past few years, the cities had risen from their age-old shells, providing proof of their potential on the global front, he added.

However, when benchmarked globally, Indian cities have a lot of catching-up to do. Delhi, which is at the top in the country, has been benchmarked at 46.7 - which was way below 71.4 for New York, 70.4 for London, 55.2 for Shanghai and 69.3 for Hong Kong.

The top 10 Indian cities ranked on their score are as follows:

• Delhi: 69.73
  
• Mumbai: 67.85
  
• Chennai: 62.32
  
• Hyderabad: 61.78
  
• Kolkata: 61.46
  
• Gurgaon: 61.16
  
• Bengaluru: 61.10
  
• Noida: 60.40
  
• Pune: 59.85

The emerging growth centres of the economy the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, including Agra, Bhopal, Kochi, Madurai, Patna, Varanasi, and Vishakhapatnam and others, also moved up and down on the City Competitiveness Index 2012.

With a score of 62.323, Chennai leads among South Indian cities and is placed at the third position. According to the institute, the future cities of India, which offer a huge pool of opportunities in their existing challenges and with their individual competitive advantage, were making their way to compete with the global cities on certain parameters.

The report states that Indian cities needed to work on their areas of strength and use it constructively to attract people from diverse backgrounds.

They should try to build a brand of their own rather than imitate any global city.

The report says every Indian city should have five components in its strategy, namely, vision, entrepreneurship, specialisation, social cohesion and a proper governance structure to improve their competitiveness and transform themselves into successful cities.

The report points to the criteria that corporates use to select cities for investing and also how governance was a key factor in determining the level of competitiveness and diversity spread across these cities.