Delhi: has been ranked the 58th most prosperous city on a list of 95 cities from around the world in a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday.
The release was timed with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP). The other Indian city that figured in the list was Mumbai which ranked 52.
The report, titled ‘State of the World’s Cities 2012/2013’ puts Delhi under cities in Cambodia, Mongolia, Guatemala and Cameroon, and above cities in Cote d’Ivoire, Nepal, Bangladesh, Uganda and Nigeria. The country’s Capital could have ranked higher but Eduardo Lopez Moreno, the report’s coordinator, said Delhi was penalised for its poor environmental standards.
“Delhi has not shown a great deal of initiative in dealing with its environment. Tackling solid waste and pollution for example has not been very great,” said Moreno.
Between Delhi and Mumbai, the report ranks the former higher under the infrastructure index but the city lags behind under the four indices of environment, productivity, equity and quality of life.
“Conceptually, the notion of prosperity still belongs within the realm of economic growth but it has to do with more than just economic well-being and material progress,” the report said.
According to Moreno, the list was not a “best-of-world” list; it is only for those 95 cities where information on all the five parameters was available.
The cities that top the list are Vienna (Austria), New York, Toronto, London, Stockholm, and the cities at the bottom of the heap are Bamako (Mali), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Conarky (Guinea) and Monrovia (Liberia).
Interestingly, Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Kyiv (Ukraine) are placed way up in the table at 33 and 40 respectively. “In emerging economies like Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and the Russian Federation, the fact that cities must realise is that equity has a significant impact on economic performance, since the greater the degree of equity, the greater the chances of a more efficient use of available resources,” Moreno said.
A.K. Mishra, secretary (housing) in the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, said Delhi leaves much to be desired overall as around 25 per cent residents live in slums and don’t get many benefits.