India’s dreams for future ‘super power’ status took a new hit when the fourth edition of the world’s ‘top and safest cities index’ from the global Economic Intelligence Unit was out this week. Two Indian cities, Mumbai and New Delhi, figured at slots 49 and 50 respectively on a scale of 60 cities, with the Danish city of Copenhagen topping the chart. Notably and predictably, Toronto in Canada took the second rank and tiny Singapore in our neighbourhood the third top slot.
The index ranked 60 top cities on the yardsticks of 76 indicators across five pillars — personal, health, infrastructure, digital, and environmental security. These are supplementary and complementary to each other. For instance, if there is better infrastructure, the rest is assured. It must be understood that old cities have their inherent problems, be it London or New York. Yet Sydney and Tokyo, among old cities, retained top slots at fourth and fifth place. Among the two Indian cities, Mumbai’s life overall is chaotic, and so with Bengaluru, the IT city that developed in a haphazard manner. Both suffered due to lack of political will. New Delhi developed by leaps and bounds, but traffic and several other scenarios are unbearable there. The less said the better about other Indian cities, or state capitals. Successive governments failed to plan urban growth in impressive ways. Private entities developed residential and commercial spaces in their own ways while governments sat back and played the fiddle. Result is lack of proper infrastructure like roads, drains, recreational facilities etc. The flooding of cars worsened the communications crisis and lack of drains added to the mosquito menace. While the first Metro mass transport system was introduced in Kolkata in the 1980s, the next was rolled out in Delhi 20 years later. Mumbai took 10 more years to launch a project. So did Bengaluru.
With a population of 1.35 billion, India’s problem in sum is its lack of effective leadership. Desi leaders, after the Nehru term, let the nation down. A few gains here and there kept the show going in the years thereafter. What Singapore or Shanghai achieved in recent decades was due to effective leadership. So too with Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia courtesy Mahathir Mohamad. Big talk from the pulpit is what the Indian leaders excel at. Fact is, this produces no result. The other way forward is to give doles or food kits to the poor and win their votes to continue in power for a longer term. India suffers from a leadership crisis. Leadership should pass on to able hands.
