The Indian cities New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru – saw a noteworthy drop in their rankings in the worldwide posting of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.
In the 2020 Smart City Index, Hyderabad was set at the 85th situation (down from 67 of every 2019), New Delhi at 86th position (down from 68 out of 2019), Mumbai was at 93rd spot (in 2019 it was at 78) and Bengaluru at 95th (79 out of 2019).
“Cities in India (New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru) suffer significant drops this year. This can be attributed to the detrimental effect that the pandemic has had where the technological advancement was not up to date,” the report said.
The Institute for Management Development, in partnership with Singapore University for Technology and Design, has delivered the 2020 Smart City Index, with key discoveries on how innovation is assuming a function in the COVID-19 time.
It further added that “Indian cities have suffered more from the pandemic because they were not prepared”.
From 15 indicators that the respondents perceive as the priority areas for their city, all four cities highlighted air pollution as one of the key areas that they felt their city needed to prioritise on.”
For urban areas like Bangalore and Mumbai, this was firmly trailed by street congestion while for Delhi and Hyderabad it was essential civilities, the report said.
The second version of the SCI positioned 109 urban areas worldwide by catching impression of randomly picking 120 occupants in every city.
Several residents from 109 these cities were over viewed in April and May 2020 and posed inquiries on the innovative arrangements of their city across five key regions: health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities and governance.
“We can’t overlook the effect of COVID,” said IMD’s Professor Arturo Bris, who led the work of the ranking as the Director of the World Competitiveness Center at the Swiss management institute which is behind it. Those with better innovation deal with the pandemic better. Brilliant urban communities are not the arrangement, however innovation helps, he clarified.
“Brilliant urban areas closer to the head of the rankings appear to manage sudden difficulties of the devastating pandemic with a better result,” commented Professor Heng Chee Chan, Chairperson of the Lee Kuan Yew Center for Innovative Cities at SUTD.