Philip Thomas
Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:05:07 -0700
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Domnic Fernandes continues (Part III) his reminiscence of
Mapusa of the 1950s
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=426
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1485543.cms
Quality of life: Delhi catching up with Mumbai TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006 12:03:48 AM] NEW DELHI: India's cities are moving up the global charts in terms of their quality of life and New Delhi is a particularly fast climber, having caught up for the first time with Mumbai as the country's most livable city. An annual survey of 215 cities all over the world ranks Mumbai and New Delhi joint 150th in quality of living, with Bangalore at rank 153 and Chennai at 160. That may not seem like much to cheer about, but three years back in 2003, the highest ranked Indian city at 156 was Mumbai, while Delhi was 162nd, just a notch above Chennai at 163 and below Bangalore at 159. Improved air, thanks to CNG, and better telcommunications facilities seem to have contributed to the better showing by Indian cities in the latest rankings, while Delhi is likely to have benefited also from the improvement in public transport brought about by the introduction of the Metro. These findings are from the annual quality of living survey conducted by human resource consulting firm Mercer. However, all four Indian cities have ranked lower than their Chinese counterparts. The five Chinese cities ranged from ranks 103 (Shanghai) to 147 (Shenyang). Several other Asian capitals apart from the obvious Tokyo (35), Singapore (34) and Hong Kong (68) are rated much higher than the Indian cities. Among these Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Manila, Colombo, Jakarta and even Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam at 148. As for India's neighbourhood, Islamabad at 158 squeezes in between the Indian cities, but Lahore (164), Karachi (171) and Dhaka (200) can't match any of the Indian metros in livability. The rankings for Indian cities have improved from last year, primarily due to India's improved political relationships with neighbouring countries,"said Gangapriya Chakraverti, Business Leader, Human Capital Product Solutions at Mercer, India. Zurich ranks as the worlds top city for quality of living. It scores 108.2 points and is only marginally ahead of Geneva, which scores 108.1, while Vancouver follows in third place with a score of 107.7. In contrast, Baghdad is the lowest ranking city in the survey, scoring just 14.5 for obvious reasons. It's ranked the least attractive city for the third consecutive year. Almost half of the top 30 cities are in Western Europe. Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in 4th position. Other highly-rated European cities include Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, scoring 86.8 at position 79. No American city is among top 10. Honolulu, is the highest ranking in US at rank 27. San Francisco is next at 28 while Boston, Washington, Chicago and Portland follow in positions 36, 41, 41 and 43 respectively. Overall, US cities continue to slip slightly or remain stable, except Chicago which improved 11 places due to decreased crime rates. ----------------- My guess is it would place somewhere between 80 and 100. (Any one know which are the cities in the survey in this bracket?) The problem is that unless there is some miracle in governance it is slowly but surely headed below the 100 mark i.e. between 100 and 150! I suppose that as long as it is just a step or two ahead of the top Indian cities it will continue to be a "relatively" attractive place in the country. Thank heavens for small mercies. _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)