Organised on the June 21, 2010 by the Medellin City Hall along with the Medellin Chamber of Commerce, the Cluster Community and TCI –The Competitiveness Institute, the  5th TCI Latin American Cluster Conference 2010 has invited Dr. Kapoor as a speaker. An initiative to create a meeting point for all cluster practitioners in Latin American and an opportunity to share knowledge and experience on clusters and initiatives to reinforce regional competitiveness, Dr. Kapoor provided valuable insights into the operational clusters and opportunities in India.

For more information on the conference, visit www.clusterlatinoamerica2010.com/en/index.html

The new reality of the business evolution is cluster formations. Competitiveness as a phenomenon cannot grow unless all aspects of the business and the business context are in sync. The Silicon Valley at the international level and the Bangalore IT revolution in India would not have been possible without the knowledge relay and the support of the related industries and organizations at the same place. It is therefore mandatory to understand the process and benefits of cluster formation for a smoother functions and dissemination of competitiveness in all sectors and industries. The small and medium scale enterprises are reeling under the pressure of global competition and without the support of government subsidies and tax benefits, not many firms would survive, however, with cluster formation even a small firm can enjoy advantages of scale economy and scope.

The GCC is a platform which allows thinkers and practitioners from all over the corporate and academic circle to find a common solution to problems that emerge in the business context.

The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) and Institute for Competitiveness, India organised Asia Competitiveness Forum which was to be held at New Delhi, India,  from 28 to 29 April 2010 has been postponed. The event would now be merged with the Global Competitiveness Conference to be held from November 29, 2010 to December 3rd,2010 in New Delhi.

At the Realty Plus Conclave, New Delhi on April 23, 2010, Dr. Kapoor was a panelist on the final session for the conclave which discussed the potent issue of creating a regulating body for the real estate developers. His views were radical as he presented a new wave of thought that supported the creation of a supervising and facilitating body where regulators could take new and old developers to case and ensure standards and safety to govern the business.

The Institute for Competitiveness presented an extensive report on India’s most competitive States in the April 2010 issue of Business World. With Delhi emerging as number 1 on account of huge investment made in infrastructure in the past two years, it is closely followed by the financial capital Maharashtra and Goa on the second and third position. The report covers interesting interviews with the state chief ministers and Dr. Amit Kapoor, the Honorary Chairman of Institute for Competitiveness. The report give insights on the methodology followed for ranking the states on different parameters.

The study was conceptualised and coordinated by a team led by Amit Kapoor, honorary chairman of Institute for Competitiveness, India, and professor of Strategy and Industrial Economics at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon; and Sandeep Mann, an expert in competitiveness of firms, industries and economies…

Indicative of best quality of life and coming up as an aspirational benchmark of urban development for other Indian cities, the city of Delhi leads the chart declares ‘The Liveability Index 2010’, a unique report based on a rigorous study conducted by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Institute for Competitiveness, India (IFC). Coming close to the winner Delhi are the cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune ranked 2^nd to 8^th respectively in overall quality of life ratings. Ironically the NCR region, which should have kept pace with the development of Delhi, has failed to do so. Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad have been ranked 9^th, 27^th and 32^nd respectively.

The Liveability Index 2010 is a methodical index of quality of living conditions in Indian cities. The report is brought-out after a comprehensive study on 37 cities, ranked on the basis of eight pillars like demographics, education, health & medical standards, safety, housing, socio-cultural political environment, economic environment and natural build & planned environment basis. An objective analysis was conducted by employing more than 300 indicators on a 10 year time line series across 20 constituent sub-pillars. This data driven approach is a distinctive mark of reports by Institute for Competitiveness, wherein no subjective opinion surveys are resorted to.

Contrary to media questioning safety in Delhi, the report puts Delhi as the safest city, while Bhopal and Bengaluru follow. Sadly, Gurgaon and Noida both take up poor rank on safety, 32nd with Faridabad 18th; is this what is jeopardising Delhi’s safety? Delhi also tops the list in domains of education and economic environment followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru. On Education front, the poorest performers are Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, and Vadodara.

Mumbai gains the top rank in Socio-political environment, followed by Delhi, Kolkata, Goa and Chennai. The city of Mumbai leads in city planning followed by Chennai and Delhi.

Health and Medical standards are the most notable for Kozhikode, Trivandrum and Kochi, a straight win for Kerela. Mumbai is 12th while Delhi is 17^th and Bengaluru 18^th. Lucknow, Noida and Patna (37th) are the last three ranked cities in providing convincing examples of health and medical standards. Health and Medical Standards are issue of gravest concern for cities like Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Pune as well.

Comparing house-cost & availability, urban household crowding and household incomes, the cities of Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gurgaon, and Noida provide the best housing options. Faring poorly in this parameter are the cities of Vishakhapatnam, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Kochi, Nashik, and Vadodara.

The authors Dr Amit Kapoor and Sandeep Mann have raised a few stirring questions: Why are our cities lagging on liveability standards vis-à-vis international cities? What is the understanding of policy makers and those in governance, of issues besetting our cities? Are they aware of the factual position? Do they have a generic grasp or an analytical insight into state of the cities? What roadmaps are being evolved to excel on global standards? The authors also exhort each city to discover its uniqueness, and create competitive advantages, rather than rely solely on inherited configurations.

Cities have to strongly emerge as engines of development for the economy. India has a total urban population of 285 million and 35 metropolitan cities and metropolises, therefore with such huge numbers the issue of urban development in the country demands a proactive addressing of challenges and integrating the opportunities in the national polity agenda with a priority approach.

You could download the complete report from here.

Dr. Amit Kapoor presented the theme address at the City Development: Emerging Business Models at the CII Conference on Cities organized by the CII in New Delhi on March 8, 2010. City Development remains a challenge for the Indian governance as cities become concentrated regions of economic activity, burdened by crime, congestion and pollution. Development of cities is lagging behind the need of the residents of the cities an to keep the liveability of the cities at a decent level, it has become imperative for policy makers to look at the city as engines of growth that run only on smooth turf.