The city of pearls, Hyderabad and queen of-Deccan Pune are the best cities to live in the country, says the latest Mercer Quality of Living Rating 2018 released on Tuesday.
It is the fourth consecutive year Hyderabad retains its position as the best city to live in India even though this year, it had to share the top spot with Pune.
Pune and Hyderabad are ranked at the 142nd spot in the list, which is the highest among the seven Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi.
On the global basis, Vienna is ranked first in the list of 450 cities, the ninth consecutive year at the top of the Index. This was followed by Zurich, which ranked second, while Auckland and Munich shared the third spot. Vancouver (Canada) Düsseldorf (Germany) Frankfurt (Germany) Geneva (Switzerland) Copenhagen (Denmark) Basel (Switzerland) Sydney (Australia) are featured in the top 10 positions.
The report notes that Hyderabad's relatively low crime rate and a pleasant weather helped it to become the best place to live. Pune has been jumping up the ranking chart over the last two years. Good housing facilities and availability of consumer goods for international employees helped Pune to secure the top position.
Bengaluru is at 149, Chennai at 151, Mumbai is at 154 and Kolkata is at 160 positions in the list. New Delhi ranked the lowest among the Indian cities (162 spot) due to challenges in traffic and air quality maintenance.
"Chinese and Indian cities had the highest increases in living standards in Asia between 1998 and 2018. As two of the fastest-growing economies in the world, China and India have made considerable investments in the physical infrastructure of its cities, including airports, public transport networks, and broadband and mobile phone connections" the survey report said.
