India’s top 4 cities ranking drops in Global Smart City Index
As per the Institute for Management Development report, India’s top 4 smart cities New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad saw a significant drop in their rankings in the global Smart Cities Index 2020.
As compared to global Smart City Index 2019, Hyderabad is slipped down from 67 to 85th position, New Delhi from 68th to 86th, Mumbai which was earlier at 78 is now at 93rd and Bengaluru is now on 95th position whereas earlier it was on 79th the year 2019.
The study was conducted by IMD in partnership with Singapore University for Technology and Design and SCO Smart City Observatory.
The report presents how technology is playing a role during the pandemic time. Arturo Bris who is a professor at the IMD said, “We cannot ignore the impact of COVID. Those with better technology managed the pandemic better. Smart cities are not solutions but the technology that helps them be smart.” The report says that Indian cities suffer significant drops this year which can be attributed to the detrimental effect that the pandemic has had where the technology advancement was not up to date. Indian cities have suffered more from the pandemic because they were not prepared.
Air pollution was one of the major indicators that citizens want city administrators to focus on. However, cities like Mumbai and Bangalore road congestion was a major concern.
In the 2020 Global Smart City Index, Singapore was on top followed by Helsinki and Zurich on second and third rank respectively.
