The FICCI-Ernst & Young Real Estate Report 2007 can be read in many ways. But of course what has attracted notice is Delhi vs Mumbai. The report includes 55 parameters clustered under five heads of city prosperity, urban governance, business environment, quality of life and infrastructure. So the focus is not necessarily on which city is best to do one’s business in, but the best city to live in. Stated in this fashion, it is not surprising that Delhi should do better than Mumbai on quality of life, infrastructure, city prosperity and business environment — though Mumbai performs better on urban governance. However, ranks are often sensitive to weights used and aggregation techniques, and it is always preferable to focus on index values rather than ranks, especially if one intends to track a city’s performance over time. While Delhi and Mumbai are at the top with ratings of A++, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata follow with A+ and then come Pune and Ahmedabad with A. While there is no strict definition of the word ‘metro’, this study refers to these eight cities as metros, with perhaps an implicit population cut-off of five million. However, the problems of such metros often receive adequate attention; governance problems are often more serious in cities that are in the one million to five million population range. The study flags that smaller cities (rated B++) like Surat, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam and Jaipur have been experiencing rapid economic growth.What is happening in cities like Meerut or Agra that are in the one to five million population bracket, but do not receive B++ rating? India’s development future will not be determined by 600,000 villages or eight metros with 5-million plus population. It will be determined by integration achieved between larger village clusters of 50,000 and cities with populations of five million or less. This integration is happening in parts of the country, but is occurring in a sporadic and ad hoc fashion, in the absence of urban planning. The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission hasn’t really taken off. Consequently, indicators like prosperity may pull these cities up, but urban governance, business environment, quality of life or infrastructure don’t provide reasons for optimism. Yet, higher real estate costs in metros and migration from rural areas will drive haphazard growth in these cities. That is the conundrum not only not solved but not always recognised even.
