Bengaluru emerged as India’s highest-ranked city at No. 83 in the Prosperity & Inclusion City Seal and Awards (PICSA) Index competing with world’s 13 cities in terms of economic and social inclusivity. Among other Indian cities, Delhi stood at 101 and Mumbai at 107.
The index released in the Basque Country capital of Bilbao in northern Spain on the evening of Thursday, November 21, showcases the quantity of economic growth of a city along with its quality and distribution across populations.
Bilbao, the host of the index, is ranked at 20.
“As the first-ever non-commercial ranking index, PICSA provides a new measure of economic productivity that goes beyond GDP to provide a holistic account of how well people are doing in the economy and which have the populations that are most empowered to contribute to its economy and share in its benefits,” Asier Alea Castanos, Director of Strategic Programmes at the Regional Council of Biscay, said.
“There is increasing recognition in governments and also the private sector that success needs to be judged in new ways: factors like health, housing affordability and quality of life need to be put alongside jobs, skills and incomes when measuring prosperity,” he said.
Commissioned and compiled by Basque institutions D&L Partners, the index measures factors such as the affordability of housing and access to education and healthcare, besides GDP per capita, to rank the cities.
The 2019 Legatum Prosperity Index will be published next week – stay tuned to find out which of the 167 countries will be topping the Index! #ProsperityIndex https://t.co/oHOVpdUWWA
— Legatum Institute (@LegatumInst) November 21, 2019
It is the first time that the world’s major cities have been ranked not just by the size and health of their economy, but for their initiatives and measures to build inclusive and prosperous environments for all its citizens.
Zurich, in Switzerland, tops the list as it performs immensely well across all measures, particularly on the quality of life, work, housing, leisure, safety, and education. The Swiss higher education system also attained an especially high score.
Dr Bruno Lanvin, Founder and CEO at D&L Partners, said: “Without equity and inclusion, economic growth is not sustainable. Without growth, equity is about redistributing poverty.”
“By measuring the performance of cities across different pillars of inclusive prosperity, as the PICSA Index does, policymakers can identify high performers in specific domains and establish roadmaps of best practices,” he added.
Cities were assessed on comparable data from the main focus areas by a jury of experts and business leaders. These assessments then decided an overall score for each city’s inclusive prosperity, allowing them to be ranked based on a wide range of measures.
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