Best cities for business

Picture this: BY 2020, Mumbai and its extended suburbs are a dizzying maze of flyovers and expressways that go on and on. Entwined around skyscrapers whose terraces hang hidden in the clouds, the concrete jungle may not be pretty, but it never fails to elicit gasps dripping with awe from the thousands of immigrants who (still) troop into the country’s financial capital every day. Visitors to the megacity can’t help but marvel at the smooth and orderly flow of traffic through the labyrinths of sixand eight-lane roads and ramps that start at Colaba in the south, snake over the Arabian sea, and end some 100 km off Greater Mumbai limits, well into what was a rural, agrarian Konkan pasture only a decade ago.

If the traffic’s moving smoothly, it’s not just because of the countless wide and runway-like roads that meander across the Mumbai landscape, almost like random strokes of a painter’s brush. The traffic’s humming without a glitch also because there isn’t much of it on the road. That’s because few are keen to drive their cars out on these endless tarmacs of immaculately laid-out thoroughfares.

Few are keen to drive because few are willing to shell out a small fortune for petrol and diesel. Crude oil, the commodity whose supply woefully outstrips demand in 2020, has crossed $300 a barrel, and is still rising. Electric trains, buses and even the humble cycle have become the average Mumbaikars’ vehicles of preference.

And thank heavens somebody had the good sense to build those elevated sky walks, which ensure that walking in the midst of steel and cement is still a pleasure. Sounds like one of Nostradamus’ doomsday prophecies? Perhaps, but it’s an eventuality worth losing a few days sleep over.

After all, when much of the initial phase of infrastructure creation began a few years ago (or some 15 years before 2020), oil prices were ensconced in the sub-$30 per barrel region. If there was a scramble to make the big cities a moveable feast with flyovers, it was on the assumption that affordability of fuel wouldn’t become an issue.

Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing, but then that’s why foresight, though rarer, is brilliant. What if spiralling oil prices—coupled with ancillary inflationary pressures around consumers— makes driving a luxury that’s increasingly elusive, and the wonderful flyovers and expressways just shortsighted marvels of fanciful engineering?

One could argue that infrastructure creation is a necessity, and the US has progressed as far as they have on the back of a frenetic buildup of road connectivity. True, but the only difference is that when such construction activity was under way in the West, supply of oil outstripped the demand for it. Unlike the situation today.

It’s against such a backdrop that Business Today’s Best Cities for Business may not remain that way for too long. They just can’t. By 2020, perhaps it will be time for a few newly-created special economic zones (SEZs)—a la Shenzhen and Pudong in China, although that may not be a model that is to be followed blindly, either—to creep up on the Best Cities list, along with a few names that are neglected rural outposts today. In fact, with Mumbai clambering to the top of the list with almost mindless monotony, the Best Cities for Business makes lesser and lesser sense year after year. Till the stock exchanges, banks, financial institutions and headquarters of India’s biggest corporations continue to reside in Mumbai, few businesses worth their balance sheets would consider venturing away from the commercial capital; never mind that it’s rotting at the seams. If someone can create such alternatives from scratch, one has a substitute to Mumbai. It does, indeed, make more sense to build mint-new cities than to improve connectivity to the decaying ones. Here are some of the top business cities

Lucknow & Kanpur: Against all odds

Despite negative perceptions about law and order and poor infrastructure, two cities from Uttar Pradesh—Kanpur and Lucknow—rise buoyed by positive consumer and investor sentiment. Do they denote a glimmer of hope for the rest of UP?

Bangalore: Back # 2

Its infrastructure may be creaking at the seams, but a slew of recent improvements have ensured that India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ is back among the top cities.

Delhi: Capital challenge

No doubt the city’s infrastructure is improving, but its satellite towns are still a mess and, worst of all, crime continues to be a serious problem.

Chennai: Can it cope?

India’s southern-most metro has been receiving lots of IT and auto industry investments.The big question: is the city capable of handling such explosive growth?

Bhubaneswar: Catching up with the big boys

A slew of big-ticket investments in Orissa is transforming its capital from a sleepy tourist town to a glitzy business destination.

Mumbai: The sun hasn’t set, not yet

Mumbai might be the maximum city with most people surveyed voting for it as the best city to do business in, but it’s among the toughest cities to live in.

Surat: Moolah city

Booming industries, a unique demographic make-up, the entrepreneurial skills of its populace, and a pot-pourri of cultures all contribute to make Surat the city with the highest average household income in the country.

Bhopal: A Beautiful Little Boomtown

Below the radar of the national media, Bhopal is industrialising rapidly and emerging as an increasingly important manufacturing hub.

	CEOs and Industrialists	Self-employed professionals	Senior Managers	Policy makers	Spouses of executives	B-School students	Overall score
Base : All Respondents
MUMBAI	7.44	7.59	7.42	7.44	7.58	7.29	7.47
Delhi	7.37	7.39	7.36	7.19	7.46	7.24	7.34
Bangalore	7.46	7.50	7.39	7.24	7.43	7.25	7.40
Chennai	7.34	7.37	7.30	7.34	7.33	7.17	7.33
Hyderabad	7.17	7.23	7.15	7.05	7.38	7.10	7.18
Kolkata	6.86	6.79	7.01	6.85	7.12	6.85	6.89
Ahmedabad	6.85	6.61	6.81	6.63	6.97	6.79	6.76
Pune	6.88	6.54	6.70	6.42	6.99	6.72	6.70
Surat	6.61	6.41	6.48	6.26	6.77	6.40	6.48
Nagpur	6.39	5.96	6.20	6.01	6.31	6.16	6.17
Jaipur	6.54	6.12	6.33	6.06	6.42	6.38	6.30
Kanpur	6.50	6.24	6.34	6.01	6.46	6.30	6.31
Lucknow	6.33	6.07	6.20	6.02	6.37	6.29	6.20
Indore	6.19	5.89	5.97	5.75	6.29	5.88	5.99
Patna	5.87	5.74	5.76	5.78	5.96	5.73	5.80
Bhubaneshwar	6.12	5.81	5.96	5.76	6.31	5.88	5.96
Weights given for oevrall score to the various segments	0.25	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.10	0.10

Overall Ranking
	Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	Mumbai	MUMBAI	MUMBAI
2	Bangalore	Delhi	Bangalore
3	Delhi	Bangalore	Delhi
4	Chennai	Chennai	Chennai
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Hyderabad
6	Kolkata	Kolkata	Kolkata
7	Pune	Ahmedabad	Ahmedabad
8	Ahmadabad	Pune	Pune
9	Nagpur	Surat	Surat
10	Surat	Nagpur	Kanpur
11	Lucknow	Jaipur	Jaipur
12	Jaipur	Kanpur	Lucknow
13	Indore	Lucknow	Nagpur
14	Kanpur	Indore	Indore
15	Patna	Patna	Bhubaneshwar
16	Patna
CEOs and Industrialists
Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	MUMBAI	Bangalore	Bangalore
2	Delhi	Mumbai	MUMBAI
3	Bangalore	Delhi	Delhi
4	Chennai	Chennai	Chennai
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Hyderabad
6	Kolkata	Kolkata	Pune
7	Ahmedabad	Pune	Kolkata
8	Pune	Ahmadabad	Ahmedabad
9	Surat	Surat	Surat
10	Jaipur	Nagpur	Jaipur
11	Nagpur	Jaipur	Kanpur
12	Lucknow	Lucknow	Nagpur
13	Kanpur	Kanpur	Lucknow
14	Indore	Indore	Indore
15	Patna	Patna	Bhubaneshwar
16	Patna
Self-employed Professionals
	Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	MUMBAI	Bangalore	MUMBAI
2	Delhi	Mumbai	Bangalore
3	Bangalore	Delhi	Delhi
4	Chennai	Chennai	Chennai
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Hyderabad
6	Kolkata	Kolkata	Kolkata
7	Pune	Pune	Ahmedabad
8	Ahmedabad	Ahmadabad	Pune
9	Surat	Nagpur	Surat
10	Indore	Indore	Kanpur
11	Nagpur	Lucknow	Jaipur
12	Kanpur	Surat	Lucknow
13	Patna	Jaipur	Nagpur
14	Jaipur	Kanpur	Indore
15	Lucknow	Patna	Bhubaneshwar
16	Patna
Senior Managers
	Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	MUMBAI	Mumbai	MUMBAI
2	Bangalore	Bangalore	Bangalore
3	Delhi	Delhi	Delhi
4	Chennai	Chennai	Chennai
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Hyderabad
6	Kolkata	Kolkata	Kolkata
7	Ahmedabad	Pune	Ahmedabad
8	Pune	Ahmadabad	Pune
9	Surat	Nagpur	Surat
10	Jaipur	Surat	Kanpur
11	Kanpur	Kanpur	Jaipur
12	Lucknow	Indore	Nagpur
13	Nagpur	Jaipur	Lucknow
14	Patna	Lucknow	Indore
15	Indore	Patna	Bhubaneshwar
16	Patna
Policy Makers
	Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	MUMBAI	Mumbai	MUMBAI
2	Delhi	Bangalore	Chennai
3	Bangalore	Chennai	Bangalore
4	Chennai	Delhi	Delhi
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Hyderabad
6	Kolkata	Pune	Kolkata
7	Ahmedabad	Kolkata	Ahmedabad
8	Pune	Ahmadabad	Pune
9	Surat	Nagpur	Surat
10	Jaipur	Lucknow	Jaipur
11	Indore	Surat	Lucknow
12	Nagpur	Kanpur	Kanpur
13	Lucknow	Jaipur	Nagpur
14	Kanpur	Indore	Patna
15	Patna	Patna	Bhubaneshwar
16	Indore
Spouses of Executives
	Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	MUMBAI	Mumbai	MUMBAI
2	Delhi	Bangalore	Delhi
3	Bangalore	Delhi	Bangalore
4	Chennai	Chennai	Hyderabad
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Chennai
6	Kolkata	Kolkata	Kolkata
7	Ahmedabad	Ahmadabad	Pune
8	Pune	Pune	Ahmedabad
9	Nagpur	Nagpur	Surat
10	Surat	Indore	Kanpur
11	Patna	Jaipur	Jaipur
12	Lucknow	Lucknow	Lucknow
13	Jaipur	Surat	Nagpur
14	Kanpur	Kanpur	Bhubaneshwar
15	Indore	Patna	Indore
16	Patna
B-School Students
	Ranking for year 2006	Ranking for Year 2007	Ranking for Year 2008
1	MUMBAI	Mumbai	MUMBAI
2	Bangalore	Delhi	Bangalore
3	Delhi	Bangalore	Delhi
4	Chennai	Chennai	Chennai
5	Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Hyderabad
6	Kolkata	Kolkata	Kolkata
7	Patna	Pune	Ahmedabad
8	Indore	Ahmadabad	Pune
9	Nagpur	Indore	Surat
10	Ahmedabad	Nagpur	Jaipur
11	Jaipur	Surat	Kanpur
12	Lucknow	Jaipur	Lucknow
13	Pune	Lucknow	Nagpur
14	Kanpur	Patna	Bhubaneshwar
15	Surat	Kanpur	Indore
16	Patna