No Indian city in list of global top-100 liveable cities

New Delhi, Mumbai further slip to 118 & 119 respectively; Rising crime rate, air pollution in an alarming state.

Hyderabad: The latest list of most liveable cities in the world by The Economic Intelligence Unit has revealed the disgusting fact of widening the gap between India and developed nations. No Indian city is in the list of top-100 liveable cities. Further, India’s capital city New Delhi and financial capital Mumbai slipped from 112 and 117 places to 118 and 119 respectively. Increasing crime rate and air pollution are the major reasons for Indian cities losing most liveable status, observes Economic Intelligence Unit.

The latest list of top-100 most liveable cities for 2019 ranked Austria capital city Vienna at the top for the second year in a row. Australian city Melbourne, which was at the top for seven years, has lost its status to Vienna and settled for the second position. Sidney and Osaka are the third and fourth-best cities in the world, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit, which carried out its survey in over 140 cities globally.

The survey for Global Liveable Index considered several factors such as living standards, environment, crime rate, transportation, infrastructure, education, health, politics, economy, to determine the most liveable cities in the world.

Western Europe and South America are the most liveable zones as eight cities in the top-20 are in Europe only. Paris fell by eight notches to 25^thplace in the list. London and New York cities are ranked at 48 and 58, respectively.

Terror-hit Syria’s capital city, Damascus, ranked last. Tripoli, Dhaka and Karachi are preceding Damascus from the last.

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It may be recalled that Hyderabad was ranked 143 in most liveable cities in the world by Mercer, the world’s largest human resources consulting firm. Hyderabad and Pune topped the list of best Indian cities in terms of living standards in March 2019.