India's best-governed cities in 2017

Being the world’s sixth largest economy with the second largest population, urbanization in India can have its own unique challenges. Janaagraha, a Bengaluru-based non-profit, conducted its annual survey across major cities around the country. It assesses urban capacities, resources, political representation and effective working of municipal systems, accumulating an overall score for the cities’ governance and quality of life.

With New York and London at 8.8, the average score of Indian cities was about 3.4 in the last few years. It seems like the growth of cities is much slower than that of the country as a whole. Pune retained the top spot this year followed by eastern Kolkata and southern Thiruvananthapuram.

The survey highlights the need for policies that go beyond temporary fixes and that it’s necessary to encourage city leaders to develop roadmaps for sustainable urban growth.