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TIMES OF INDIA-IMRB QUALITY OF LIFE SURVEY

COMMUTING EASE

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, HYDERABAD DECEMBER 11, 2011

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, HYDERABAD DECEMBER 11, 2011

TIMES OF INDIA-IMRB QUALITY OF LIFE SURVEY

ENVIRONMENT WEATHER
Ahmedabad Pune Chennai Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad

11
Kolkata

PHYSICAL, CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Forever on the road to nowhere

A
Most cities have T faced up to the hard realities
POWER/ ELECTRICITY
Ahmedabad 4.2 Pune 3.3 Delhi 3.2 Mumbai 3.8 Bangalore 2.8 Hyderabad 2.8 Chennai 2.6 Kolkata 2.9

his includes the state of power and water supply, on the one hand, and the law and order situation and how clean and efficient local administration is on the other. All these parameters put together were found to have a weight of a little more than 20% in determining the overall ranking that respondents gave their city. The topper in this category was Ahmedabad with Mumbai not too far behind, while the bottom of the charts was Kolkata which did particularly badly on law and order and the quality of its local administration

category that essentially captures all transport-related issues. That includes the city's public transport facilities as well as traffic and parking problems. The sobering fact is that no city averages more than 2.5 in this category, a clear indication of how poorly planned most of our cities are and how dramatically the population of vehicles has jumped in recent years. Parking seems to be the worst of the three parameters more or less across the board. Of course, it is also the least complicated of the three issues to solve. This category has a weight of just under 5% in the overall city rating

PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

TRAFFIC SITUATION

PARKING FACILITIES

2.9 2.1 3.1 3.5 2.8 3.1 2.9 3.0

1.8 1.8 2.4 2.1 1.8 1.9 2.1 2.0

1.8 1.8 2.1 2.0 1.7 1.9 1.9 2.0

Options closed on open spaces

2.8

3.6

2.8

2.5

3.5

2.5

2.2

1.9

for Delhi was the highest score any city got for parking facilities, which means even the best was rated as "poor

2.1

ncludes the weather, the quality of air, open spaces and how much of a sporting culture and sporting facilities the city has. This category emerged as the second most important in the overall ratings with a weight of close to 21%. Unfortunately, it is also a category in which no city scores particularly well, barring Pune and Bangalore on the weather front. The lack of open spaces clearly emerges as one major area of concern as does the absence of sporting facilities. Look no further to understand why those Olympic medals seem so elusive

2.9
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

Hyderabad is at par with Delhi on top when it comes to sporting facilities

SPORTS/CULTURAL FACILITIES
2.4 2.6 2.9 2.2 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.9 1.8 2.6 2.3 2.0 2.1

QUALITY OF AIR
Ahmedabad 2.7 Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai

OPEN SPACE IN THE CITY

Abad Pune Delhi Mum Blore Hyd

Che

Kol

Kolkata

2.6 2.7 2.1 2.6 2.2 2.2 2.0

LEISURE FACILITIES

PIPED WATER FACILITIES

Pune

3.2
Ahmedabad Delhi

Mumbai

Hyderabad

3.8
Blore

3.0
Chennai

Kolkata

2.8

COMMUTE, LOCAL GOVT COMMON WOES OF CITIES

ndias eight biggest cities all end up In a period that has seen sustained high rated as average or a little worse, inflation rates, particularly in food, it and there are a few clear reasons comes as no surprise that cost of living is a why this is so. For starters, parameter on which every city ranked low. commuting is a problem area in Predictably, residents of every city also every one of them. In some cases said life was more stressed out than rethis is because public transport infrastruclaxed in their city Civic sense, or rather its . ture is absent and in others lack, is perceived as a because traffic and parking problem again in every city SOME OF THE SOFTER woes make life a hell. with none of them getting a ASPECTS GOT THE Another problem area is score of more than 2.5 on a BETTER SCORES FROM the broad category of enviscale of 1 to 5. THE RESPONDENTS. ronment. While bad weather Housing has always been LEISURE FACILITIES, FOR is something administrators an important part of the INSTANCE, WERE can do nothing about, air problem of city living and UNIFORMLY RANKED BETWEEN AVERAGE quality emerged as a concern the survey indicates that in AND GOOD, THOUGH in every city as did lack of most cities that remains true NIGHTLIFE WAS AN open spaces and sporting faeven today. It doesnt take EXCEPTION cilities. With this broad caterocket science to figure out gory playing an important that Mumbai would rate parrole in deciding how people view the qualticularly low on this count, but the rest ity of life in their city, shouldnt much dont too well either. more be done on this front? What have our cities done well in? We Also clear is the fact that while physical sought answers on as many as 30 parameinfrastructure in terms of power and waters ranging from hard infrastructure to ter supplies, for instance, has been beefed intangibles like whether the city gives out up, civic infrastructure namely law and friendly or hostile vibes and how it feels for order and efficient and clean local adminoutsiders. istration remains something our citizens Some of the softer aspects got the better can only dream of. scores from the respondents. Leisure facil-

LACK OF PARKING FACILITIES, OPEN SPACES, SPORTING INFRASTRUCTURE, CIVIC SENSE ARE AMONG THE PARAMETERS ON WHICH URBAN INDIAS BIGGEST STARS FAIL TO MAKE THE CUT, SHOWS AN EXCLUSIVE SURVEY CONDUCTED IN INDIAS EIGHT 5-MILLION PLUS CITIES
ities, for instance, were uniformly ranked between average and Mean Scores good, though nightlife Social Infra. was an exception in this Environment category. Social and culPhysical & tural values was another Civic Infra. category where responLeisure Facilities dents rated their cities relSocial and atively better, the national Cultural Values capital being the sole exQuality of Life ception to this rule. Commuting Ease A good sign for the future is that the quality of schooling and of colleges was another aspect rated reasonably highly across the eight cities. Somewhat more surprisingly, the quality of hospitals also received a thumbs-up despite the fact that respondents were asked to consider both services and price. In a society that doesnt tire of boasting that it has the second fastest growing major economy in the world, it comes as no surprise that job opportunities received a favourable rating in most cities. But in another sign of Kolkata being a city that has been on a

Chilling out, but nights still a dark spot

3.4

2.8

2.6

2.6

LAW & ORDER

Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.1 3.0 2.4 3.1 2.3 2.9 2.7 2.1

4.2/5
was the score Ahmedabad got for power supply, the highest any city got on any of the 30 parameters

LOCAL ADMIN
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.0 2.6 2.5 2.5 2.6 2.6 2.2 2.1

LONG AND SHORT OF IT

Ahmd Pune Delhi Mum Blore Hyd Chen Kol

3.2 2.6 3.4 3.0 3.2 2.7 2.2

3.1 2.8 3.0 3.1 3.1 2.7 1.9

3.3 2.8 2.7 3.1 2.6 2.2 2.5

3.0 2.1 3.3 3.5 3.1 2.2 2.5

3.2 2.9 2.6 2.9 3.0

3.0 2.5 2.8 3.0 3.2

3.1 2.2 2.5 3.0 2.9 2.3 2.3

2.5 2.1 2.4 3.0 3.1 2.3 2.3

term thats self-explanatory and includes entertainment facilities like cinema, theatre etc as well as eating out, night life and shopping options. This category was the fourth most important in determining the overall rating with a weight of about one-sixth or 17%. With the exception of Mumbai, which topped this category, there was little to separate the others with their scores ranging between 2.9 for Bangalore and 3.1 for Pune and Delhi. Night life was evidently the low performance mark for all cities in this category

2.9 was Kolkata

2nd in night life behind Mumbais score of 3.2

ENTERTAINMENT FACILITIES
3.2 3.3 3.3 3.6 3.4 3.0 3.2 3.2

SHOPPING OPTIONS
Ahmedabad Bangalore

2.4 2.7 2.1 2.3

3.2
Pune
Abad Pune Delhi Mum Blore Hyd Che Kol

3.1
Hyderabad

PEACE OF MIND

No scope for take-it-easy policy

I
Pune Delhi

ncludes some of the most difficult-to-quantify aspects of life in the city, but also one that is most tangible, namely the cost of living. A combined weight of just over 5% in the overall ratings suggests that these parameters ultimately matter less than most when judging a city, but some of them, like how stressful it is or whether domestic help is easily available can make quite a difference. As you would expect, none of the cities scores very well in this category, with the highest being 2.7 indicating something between 'poor' and average

RELAXED/ STRESSFUL
Ahmedabad

CIVIC SENSE
Ahmedabad Pune 2.4 2.3 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.5 2.0 1.8

2.8 2.8 2.8 2.2

Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.0

Mumbai

2.0
Bangalore

DOMESTIC HELP
2.5
Ahmedabad

which would indicate a rating of average, was a score not achieved by any city in any of the parameters included in this category

downslide for some time, the citys respondents rated job opportunities as poor. A caveat is in order here. This poll was restricted to those in the top two socio-economic categories and to those up to 60 years of age. All the anecdotal evidence suggests that our cities are particularly hard on those at the bottom of the economic ladder and on the elderly. Thus, for them the reality is probably even worse than this survey suggests. Time for some action, we would think.

3.0
Delhi

3.2
Chennai

EATING OUT FACILITIES

3.4
Ahmedabad

3.4
Pune

3.5
Delhi

3.6
Mumbai

3.3 3.0 3.3 2.9

Blore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.5

3.3
Kolkata

NIGHT LIFE IN THE CITY

Ahmedabad

Mumbai
Blore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

2.3 2.7 2.3 3.2 2.3 2.5 2.1 2.9

Pune

Delhi

Mumbai

3.5

2.9

S O C I A L , C U LT U R A L VA L U E S

2.8 2.9 2.6 2.8

Bangalore

2.5 2.7 2.5 2.7

Kolkata

Hyderabad

2.8
Chennai

Capital gives no premium to values, but others do

RESPECT FOR VALUES
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

Pune

Hyderabad

2.3
Kolkata

Delhi

Chennai

2.2

Mumbai

Kolkata

T
Pune

COST OF LIVING
Ahmedabad

hese measure the softer aspects of the city, its respect for values, for elders and for women, for instance. Also included are how friendly or hostile the city is in general and more specifically towards those perceived as 'outsiders'. These five parameters put together have a weight of close to 9% in the overall rating of the city. It's the only category in which the national capital finishes quite clearly at the bottom of the heap, according to the survey. The fact that it is unsafe for women and perceived as not particularly friendly obviously did not help

Pune

2.7

Mumbai

2.0
Delhi Blore

Hyderabad

2.8
Chennai

2.5

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF CITY

Ahmedabad

2.8

2.2

2.3

2.4

3.4
Ahmedabad

3.4
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE SCHOOLS
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

Despite MNS-style attacks, Mumbai was next only to Kolkatas 3.5 in cosmopolitanism
WOMEN FRIENDLINESS
Pune Delhi Mumbai

3.0 3.2 2.5 2.9 2.9 3.1 3.0 3.0

COLLEGES
3.5 3.7 3.8 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.0
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

HOSPITALS

HOUSING
3.2 2.8 3.2 2.9 3.0 2.8 3.0 2.2
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

Good marks in healthcare and schooling

onsists of the quality of educational institutions, hospitals and housing facilities. It also includes job opportunities as well as the city's work culture. Taken together, these six parameters carry a weight of over 23% in the overall ratings, the largest for any single category. It is mercifully also the category in which almost all cities perform relatively well, with Kolkata alone being below 3 on the 5-point scale. 'Quality of schooling' is a rare parameter in which no city scored below 3

3.3 3.7 3.8 3.3 3.4 3.2 3.5 2.8

Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.1 2.7 2.8 2.0 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.6

METHODOLOGY
he survey was conducted in two parts. The first part, done by IMRB, polled roughly 150 respondents from socio-economic categories A and B (in a 65:35 ratio) in each of the eight cities. The respondents were from ages 18 onwards and the two genders were roughly equally represented. The questionnaire asked respondents to rate their city on 30 different parameters and to give an overall rating on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents very poor and 5 very good. The 30 questions were broken up into seven major groups through factor analysis. A regression analysis was then done to see which factors weighed how heavily in determining people's overall rating. The weighted average scores of these seven factors then yielded the overall city score. In the second part, TOI asked the same questions of 30 people in each of these cities who track living conditions in them. The responses of this expert panel were then combined with those of the lay sample to arrive at the final figures presented over here. Disagree with these findings? To cast your vote, go to: bestcitysurvey.timesofindia.com

3.4
Delhi

COSMOPOLITANISM
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.6
Mumbai

3.0
Bangalore

3.0
Hyderabad

WORK CULTURE
Ahmedabad Pune Delhi

3.4
Chennai

Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai

2.9
Kolkata

3.3
With this score, Mumbai predictably topped in terms of work culture but Bangalore was close

JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Pune

Hyderabad

3.1
Ahmedabad Delhi

Mumbai

3.0
Bangalore

Kolkata

3.2 3.4 3.4 3.1

2.1
Chennai

Mumbai Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata

3.0

3.1 3.1 2.9 3.3 3.2 2.8 3.0 2.5

3.2
CITY FRIENDLINESS
Ahmedabad Pune

Kolkata

3.5 3.2 1.7 3.2 2.9 2.7 2.8 2.9

2.7 2.9 3.0 3.4 3.3 3.1 2.9 3.5

Delhi

Mumbai

Bangalore

Hyderabad

Chennai

Kolkata

3.3

2.9

2.3

2.9

3.1

3.6

3.0

2.8