The city looks unbeatable on parameters like, physical infrastructure, skilled manpower, diversity of firms and good governance. The only areas where the city lags is administrative and institutional support, which can affect the performance of the city over a period of time.

Slight shuffles were witnessed in the ranking of the top ten contenders in the India City Competitiveness Index 2014. Gurgaon and Noida jumped upwards three positions to take the 3rd and 4th rank. Similarly, Bengaluru moved up one position and is now spotted at 7th.  On the other hand, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata dropped each by three positions. The rest of the cities, Delhi (1st), Mumbai (2nd), Pune (9th) and Ahmedabad (10th) were stable at their respective positions.

The slot containing cities of the order 11-20 is largely dominated by the cities from the southwest part of the country. Cities, which have performed well in the slot, are Kochi (11th), Chandigarh (13th), Nashik (17th) and Vadodara (19th).

The next set of cities that is from 21-30 ranks are Tier ‘Y’ cities (as categorized by the Sixth Central Pay Commission wherein Tier Y is equivalent to Tier 2) which have promising future and are proving themselves on the pillars of competitiveness. Cities, which have moved up in the slot are Faridabad (23rd), Mysore (24th), Kanpur (26th) and Varanasi (28th). Rest of the cities has demonstrated a drop from their previous year’s ranking.

Report is based on the Microeconomic Diamond Model laid down by Michael E Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School. The model is based on four pillars of competitiveness that are factor conditions, demand conditions, context for strategy and rivalry and supporting and related industries. India City Competitiveness Report 2014 assesses the vital details of a city on a set of well-defined 180 indicators.