City Competitiveness Report

With rapid urbanization taking place, Indian cities are playing pivotal role in the economic development of the country. Our states and nation are nothing but a summation of our cities thus it is not inordinate to assert that the state of the cities reflects the state of our nation. Though the cities have a long way to go before they match the international standards, a positive trend has been witnessed and they have a potential to grow.

The India City Competitiveness Report is an annual endeavor to analyze and evaluate Indian cities, the business opportunities they offer to the Indian economy. The study ranks India’s most competitive cities to gauge their productivity, thus giving a direction to the policy makers by proposing policy faults and suggesting suitable measures to the governance and the concerned public. The report not only accentuates the competitive strengths but also focuses on the weaknesses of each city so that a clear picture of the present is portrayed along with its future prospects.

All the selected cities are measured on the lines of Diamond Porter model propounded by Prof. Michael.E. Porter of Harvard Business School. The model used in the report utilizes city GDP per capita to gauge prosperity. It ranks the cities based on a number of critical factors. The selection of these factors is based on the impact they have on the GDP. The factors are then quantified on the basis of sub indices that are given scores based on certain indicators. The sub indices are then assigned weightage to derive the primary index score out of 100.

The study involves 7 steps;

1. Identification of parameters
2. Collection of Data
3. Analyze the local endowments (Infrastructure)
4. Analyze the local markets (demand conditions)
5. Identify the economic strength of the city (Institutional support)
6. Identify the threats & Opportunities (Context for strategy or competition)
7. Calculate the competitiveness Index.

The study is based on the data collected over an extensive period of time from reliable and authentic sources such as CMIE, RBI, State Statistical Abstracts, World Bank, the surveys done by our institute etc.

The report serves twofold groups i.e., the corporate and the government. We firmly believe that it will aid policy makers in improving city productivity and hence attracting more business and that it will be a boon to the corporate sector, providing them invaluable information as they decide the future course of action for their businesses’ growth path.