Delhi’s Ranking On World’s Most “Liveable Cities” Falls Drastically. What’s Responsible?

This one may not exactly pan out as a great piece of news for the city of Delhi and its denizens. For the longest time, Delhi has been admired for its vast open spaces, plenty of greens, the general, accommodating nature of its people but none of it seems capable of rescuing the fate of the city that has quietly slipped several places in the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities.

This one may not exactly pan out as a great piece of news for the city of Delhi and its denizens. For the longest time, Delhi has been admired for its vast open spaces, plenty of greens, the general, accommodating nature of its people but none of it seems capable of rescuing the fate of the city that has quietly slipped several places in the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities.

So what exactly has happened?

It is believed, according to confirmed news, that no longer is Delhi enjoying a good, solid place on the firmament of the world’s most liveable cities. In fact, where the recent piece of developments stands, then it’s known that Delhi has actually fallen six places down on a coveted list that includes some memorable cities from around the world.

But then, Delhi has plenty of positives that are admired and hailed by the others. It’s beautiful architecture, including the ancient ruins, the widely-loved culinary culture, the highly organized and eye-pleasing spots such as the central Delhi or the Lutyen’s Delhi along with the lush green zones make the national capital region one of the brightest spots up north.

So what has ruined the fate of the city when it comes to an elite enlistment of the world’s most liveable cities?

Well, you guessed it right. What else but pollution. If there’s been a menace that has harmed the usually attractive, highly cosmopolitan city up north then its the growing problem of pollution.

Leading print national daily, The Hindu carried some interesting highlights from this development:

The EIU also flagged “an escalation in abuses against journalists in recent years” in India, citing a decline in the country’s ranking in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index where India now sits in the bottom quartile of countries.

The study said that Asian cities overall have scored slightly below the global average while three Asian cities — Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea (135th), Pakistan’s Karachi (136th) and Bangladesh’s Dhaka (138th) — are among the ten least liveable globally.

“This year we also note the demonstrable impact of the effects of climate change on liveability. Several cities, such as New Delhi in India and Cairo in Egypt received substantial downgrades on their scores owing to problems linked to climate change, such as poor air quality, undesirable average temperatures, and inadequate water provision,” the report said.

Where the overall rankings stand, then Delhi, according to the checkered list, was able to fetch only 56.3, barely a fraction ahead of Mumbai, which gathered only a lowly 56.2 while other top-ranked cities such as Vienna notched up a fantastic score of 99.1.

One of the biggest disappointments in this ranking was the city of Damascus (the capital of Syria, in the Middle East). It could only gather a shoddy 30.7 points thanks to the country being embittered and ruined by the civil war that continues to rage on to the present day.

The above told, here’s how some other cities have fared on the coveted list:

Among the BRIC countries, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) was positioned at the 89th place, Moscow (Russia) at 68th, St Petersburg (Russia) 71st. The Chinese cities in the list include Suzhou at 75th rank, Beijing 76th, Tianjin 79th, Shanghai 80th, Shenzhen 84th, Dalian 90th, Guangzhou 96th, and Qingdao 97th.

So what exactly has happened?

It is believed, according to confirmed news, that no longer is Delhi enjoying a good, solid place on the firmament of the world’s most liveable cities. In fact, where the recent piece of developments stands, then it’s known that Delhi has actually fallen six places down on a coveted list that includes some memorable cities from around the world.

But then, Delhi has plenty of positives that are admired and hailed by the others. It’s beautiful architecture, including the ancient ruins, the widely-loved culinary culture, the highly organized and eye-pleasing spots such as the central Delhi or the Lutyen’s Delhi along with the lush green zones make the national capital region one of the brightest spots up north.

So what has ruined the fate of the city when it comes to an elite enlistment of the world’s most liveable cities?

Well, you guessed it right. What else but pollution. If there’s been a menace that has harmed the usually attractive, highly cosmopolitan city up north then its the growing problem of pollution.

Leading print national daily, The Hindu carried some interesting highlights from this development:

The EIU also flagged “an escalation in abuses against journalists in recent years” in India, citing a decline in the country’s ranking in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index where India now sits in the bottom quartile of countries.

The study said that Asian cities overall have scored slightly below the global average while three Asian cities — Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea (135th), Pakistan’s Karachi (136th) and Bangladesh’s Dhaka (138th) — are among the ten least liveable globally.

“This year we also note the demonstrable impact of the effects of climate change on liveability. Several cities, such as New Delhi in India and Cairo in Egypt received substantial downgrades on their scores owing to problems linked to climate change, such as poor air quality, undesirable average temperatures and inadequate water provision,” the report said.