Context: Oxford Economics, which is an independent economic advisory firm, has developed the Global Cities Index.
Global Cities Index
- Covers the 1,000 largest cities in the world which are in 163 countries.
- The index is based on 5 categories of Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment and Governance which are aggregated to create a overall score for each city.
- According to the report, these 1,000 largest cities account for 60% of global GDP and 30% of global population.
- Top 10 cities according to Global Cities Index: New York (USA), London (UK), San Jose (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Paris (France), Seattle (USA), Los Angeles (USA), San Francisco (USA), Melbourne (Australia), Zurich (Switzerland).
- Close to three-fourths of these cities are clustered in the top 22 nations, with at least 10 big cities, and as many as one-third were bunched together in the top three nations: China with 159 cities, followed by the United States (US) with 92 and India with 91.
Methodology and indicators used to measure Global Cities Index
The report ranks the cities on a cumulative of 27 indicators grouped into following five categories:
- Economics Category: Based on GDP size, GDP growth, GDP per person, Employment growth, Economic stability and Economic diversity.
- Human Capital Category: Based on Educational attainment, Universities, Corporate Headquarters, Population growth, Age profile and Foreign-born population.
- Quality of Life Category: Based on Life expectancy, Income per person, Income equality, Housing expenditure, Recreation & cultural sites and Internet speed.
- Environment Category: Based on Air quality, Emissions intensity, Natural disasters, Temperature anomalies and Rainfall anomalies.
- Governance Category: Based on institutions, political stability, business environment and civil liberties.
Status of Indian Cities in the Global Cities Index
- Total 91 cities are included in the top 1000 cities of the Global Cities Index. However, the average rankings of Indian cities is much lower.
- The low average ranking of Indian cities is due to large deficit in human capital, poor quality of life and environmental indicators.
- Among Indian cities, the top 10 ranked were: Delhi (350), Bengaluru (411), Mumbai (427), Chennai (472), Kochi (521), Kolkata (528), Pune (534), Thrissur (550), Hyderabad (564) and Kozhikode (580).
- There is a heavy concentration in some regions. The largest cluster was in northern belt, account for 40% of the 91 Indian cities. Next came southern India (29 cities), followed by western region (12 cities) and least in eastern region (10 cities).