Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Bengaluru may have topped the Union government’s Ease of Living Index last year, but Karnataka’s capital city has fared the worst among Indian cities – and overall as well – in the Economic Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Livability Index 2022, which was released on June 24.
Bengaluru’s position in Global Livability Index 2022
For the first time, a total of five Indian cities feature on the list; before 2022, only Delhi and Mumbai were featured. For the current edition, the index was expanded to include Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Chennai as well.
However, each of the five Indian cities has fared poorly, being listed between 140 and 146. India’s IT capital was ranked 146 with a total livability score of 54.4. Delhi, the national capital, and financial capital Mumbai were ranked 140 (score 56.5) and 141 (score 56.2) respectively. Chennai and Ahmedabad were placed at 142 and 143 respectively, scoring 55.8 and 55.7.
Why Bengaluru did so bad?
The metropolis, which houses several multinationals and is also the preferred cities for start-ups, attained a score of just 46.4 (out of 100) for infrastructure, the lowest among the five Indian cities.
EIU bases is infrastructure score on quality of roads, public transport, international links, energy provision, telecommunications, water, and availability of good quality housing.
Known for its gardens, Bengaluru has, in recent years, also faced severe flak for its ‘concrete jungles’. It is also infamous for its traffic jams.
Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, was ranked among the five least livable cities but did better than Bengaluru in infrastructure, scoring 51.8 Nigeria’s Lagos, the most populous city in Africa, was ranked the third least livable city, but scored as much as Bengaluru for infrastructure.
Global Livability Index
The EIU takes the following five factors into consideration for its annual livability index: stability (25%), culture and environment (25%), healthcare (20%), infrastructure (20%), and education (10%).
A total of 173 cities are analysed for this index. This year’s list is topped by Austria’s capital Vienna, while the least livable is Syria’s capital Damascus.
