Kolkata At The Bottom Of Global Sustainable Cities Index

While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre goes in a fast forward mode to finish the task it started off by announcing its ambitious plans to develop 100 smart cities in India, a global index of sustainable cities shows that the big cities of the country are doing poorly as far as sustainability goes.The Sustainable Cities Index is published by Amsterdam-based global consulting company Arcadis, in partnership with London-based Centre for Economic and Business Research. The index that covered 100 cities across the world ranked cities on 32 parameters, broadly divided into three categories: economic health, environment and the quality of life.While Switzerland's largest city Zurich topped the list, West Bengal capital Kolkata stood at the bottom. According to Bloomberg estimates, a huge part of Kolkata's 14 million population lives in the slums. Other major India cities fared no better, with Delhi standing at the 97th spot, Mumbai at 92th, Bengaluru at 91th and Chennai at 89th. In comparison, neighbouring Bangladesh's Doha stood at 72nd spot. Six cities of China too are in the bed of the list. This could be a wake-up call for the two fastest emerging economies of the globe."The rate of urbanisation in the developing world is quite extreme," Bloomberg quoted Arcadis Global Cities Director John Batten as saying. "You look at China: buildings first, people second in terms of priorities of urbanisation. Now, you find cities in Asia that are sort of retroactively addressing air quality and water contamination."While no large city of north America has found a place in top 20 sustainable cities, the inclusion of three Asian cities -- Singapore (second spot) Seoul (seventh spot) and Hong Kong (16th spot) – at top slots shows some Asian cities are doing well.The poor ranking of north American cities, according to experts, could be explained by the fact that they have been developed for car use, in turn hit by heavy carbon emissions