Mercer’s quality of living survey
Hyderabad is the best Indian city to live in, according to the world ranking of Mercer on quality of living. The city of the State of Telangana (South) is distinguished for the second year in a row in India by the consultancy survey, which underlines notably its relatively good performance regarding air pollution, English schools quality and low crime rate.
Hyderabad, the capital and the biggest city of the young State of Telangana, born in 2014 from a split with the State of Andhra Pradesh, has lost one rank though in this chart: 139 in 2016, instead of 138 in 2015.
According to Mercer, this small regress is due to an increase of power disruptions and to very severe weather conditions last year in the 7 million people agglomeration, particularly deadly heat waves which affected the whole State.
This ranking is not just an anecdotal tool, or a source of pride or discontent, depending on one’s city ranking. American consultancy Mercer publishes its yearly survey on quality of living as a tool for multinational companies (MNC’s) to calculate the right compensation level of their employees assigned to various cities around the world. Hence, a handful of serious indicators to build this world chart: medical and health care quality, political environment and public services, environmental quality, facilities for kids, schools…
From an Indian perspective, rankings remain quiet low at the world level, without noticeable improvements. Pune is a close competitor for Hyderabad (it ranks 144) but Mumbai (152) and Delhi (161) still do not score high.
Of course, the ranking can be a matter of debate. For instance, some “Delhi patriots” would argue that this chart is first designed for expats and many Delhiites would adamantly defend the capital’s unique mix of cultural richness and sense of energy, even if it can be at times chaotic.
But this is another story. For Mercer, a European capital takes the global lead: Vienna, in Austria, is number one in terms of quality of living on the planet, according to the survey.
