15.12.10

Competitive cities


The India City Competitiveness Report recently announced by Institute for Competitiveness (IFC), Gurgaon, has listed Mumbai as one of the three cities in India with an extra edge in the list of top 25 most competitive cities. However, just before the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011, cities from Gujarat has also have proved their competitiveness in terms of development potential — according to a recent national study. The report puts Ahmedabad in seventh place, Surat is ranked 12th and Vadodara 24th. Delhi tops the rankings with Chennai and Mumbai coming second and third. Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad are also ahead of Ahmedabad. Going by this study, the western region is proving to be the growth engine of the country, with Maharashtra being the only other state with three cities on the list, including Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.
Rankings to the cities are based on the Porter’s diamond model, a benchmark model presented by Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University professor at Harvard Business School. The indicators of the model are access to high quality business inputs, related and supporting industries, demand condition and local rules and incentives, vigorous local competition. Data released by government departments and prominent research organizations has been used. IFC is affiliated to Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School and the only Indian research partner of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Dr Y K Alagh, former Union minister of state for planning, science & technology and power, said, “I am not surprised to see three Gujarat cities in the list. The decentralized urbanization across the state is the reason behind the higher rankings. Establishment of public infrastructure is helping improve competitiveness of the cities.” Alagh also believes that Gujarat is the best state in imparting technical education and training that provides trained manpower to industries.

No comments: