Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai make it on new global prosperity index
London: Bengaluru emerged as India's highest ranked city at No. 83 in a new index of the world's 113 cities in terms of economic and social inclusivity, topped by Zurich in Switzerland.
The first-ever Prosperity & Inclusion City Seal and Awards (PICSA) Index, released in the Basque Country capital of Bilbao in northern Spain on Thursday evening, is designed to showcase not only the quantity of economic growth of a city but also its quality and distribution across populations.
Delhi at 101 and Mumbai at 107 are the other Indian cities to make at the index, with the top 20 awarded a PICSA Seal as the world's highest-ranked cities building inclusive prosperity.
Bilbao, the host city of the new 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, explained Asier Alea Castanos, Director of Strategic Programmes at the Regional Council of Biscay, in reference to the index launch.
"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 by Basque institutions and compiled by D&L Partners, the PICSA Index measures factors such as the affordability of housing and access to education and healthcare, besides GDP per capita.
It marks 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 efforts to build inclusive and prosperous environments for all its citizens.
Zurich, as the number one, scores strongly across all measures, particularly on quality of life, work, housing, leisure, safety, and education with the Swiss higher education system attaining an especially high score.
Vienna, the Austrian capital in second place, scores close to top marks on healthcare. Copenhagen, Luxembourg and Helsinki complete the top five.
The higher end of the list is dominated by European cities, with 15 of the top 20, joined by four North American cities (Ottawa in 8th place; Washington DC ranked 11th; Seattle in 14th and Boston in 16th) and Taipei, which is the only Asian city to make it into the top 20 at 6th place.
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 performance of cities across different pillars of inclusive prosperity, as the PICSA Index does, policy makers can identify high performers in specific domains and establish roadmaps of best practices.
For the index, the cities were assessed on comparable data from the main focus areas by a jury of experts and business leaders. These assessments then produced 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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Sheena Bora murder case trial to resume on daily basis from Mar 10
Mumbai(PTI): The trial in the Sheena Bora murder case is set to resume on a day-to-day basis from March 10 after a standstill of more than four months following the transfer of the special judge.
The last notable hearing in the case, in which Sheena Bora's mother Indrani Mukerjea is the prime accused, was held on October 23 last year before the transfer of special CBI judge S P Naik Nimbalkar.
On Friday, newly assigned special judge J P Darekar told the prosecution and defence lawyers that the trial in the case will resume on a daily basis from March 10 as per the direction of the Bombay High Court.
Bora (24) was allegedly strangled to death in a car by Indrani Mukerjea, her then driver Shyamvar Rai (who later turned approver in the case) and Mukerjea's former husband Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012. Her body was burnt and disposed of at a forest in nearby Raigad.
Media baron Peter Mukerjea, ex-husband of Indrani, is also an accused in the case.
The murder came to light in 2015 after Rai spilled the beans about the murder following his arrest in another case.
Indrani Mukerjea and Khanna were arrested in August 2015, while Peter Mukerjea was arrested three months later. All the accused are currently out on bail.
The trial in the case began in February 2017 after framing of charges against all the accused. There are 237 prosecution witnesses, out of which over 90 have been examined by the court so far.
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