Pune tops in urban governance: ASICS 2017 report

March 16, 2018

Pune was ranked first among 23 cities across India in terms of quality of urban governance in the fifth edition of Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2017 report released by Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation, Janaagraha.

ASICS 2017

The objective of survey was to measure preparedness of cities to deliver high quality infrastructure and services in long term by evaluating city systems. It spans 23 Indian cities and factors in answers to 89 questions. These questions are classified on four categories viz. urban planning & design, urban capacities & resources, transparency, accountability & participation and empowered & legitimate political representation. These cities were scored on a scale of 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) based on quality of laws, policies, institutions and institutional processes that together help govern them. The report addresses five major issues, and suggests solutions at local body, State and Central government levels. It underlines need for sharp focus on City-Systems or institutional reforms to city governance in our cities.

Key Highlights of ASICS 2017

In it, Pune topped the list by scoring 5.1 out of 10 for the first time. It was followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat with scores in range of 4.6 to 4.5. Delhi moved 3 spots up to 6th place against 9th in 2016 survey. Mumbai’s ranking fell from 6th in 2016 to 9th in 2017. The worst performers in ASICS 2017 were Bengaluru (scoring the least at 3 out of 10), Chandigarh, Dehradun, Patna and Chennai. These constituted bottom five cities with scores ranging between 3 and 3.3 out of 10.