Hyderabad to be best Indian city

Nothing changed for India on Mercer's Quality of Living rankings from last year. Hyderabad continues to be on rank one in India in the overall rankings. The survey ranked Vienna has city with best quality of living for third straight year.

Hyderabad ranks highest among Indian cities on a quality of life on a global list of 230 cities, compiled by Mercer. Pune follows at 144. But, Hyderabad has slipped one rank from last year to 139, on account of increased power disruptions, which have become more frequent in the recent years and on account of extreme weather situation, particularly in May 2015, when extreme heat caused approximately 2,000 deaths countrywide.

“The states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were particularly affected, with more than 1,700 deaths recorded,” the report stated. The survey highlights that Indian cities haven't made much progress on the quality of living scale, scoring nearly the same as they did last year.

Over time, cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai have emerged as cities of choice due to factors such as relatively lower crime rate, lesser air pollution and improved options for international and reputable English speaking schools. Both Hyderabad and Pune cities rank higher for quality of living than the country's more traditional business centres. Big metros Delhi and Mumbai rank 154 and 152 respectively.

Mercer notes that "considerable population increases in Mumbai and New Delhi in recent decades have increased existing problems, including access to clean water, air pollution, and traffic congestion."Interestingly, the survey suggests that Indian cities are safer than most others in South Asia. While the ranking of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo is above Hyderabad by 6 ranks, at 132, Dhaka in Bangladesh is ranked 216 and Pakistan’s Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi are ranked 193, 199 and 202 respectively.

“Most Indian companies send their employees on short term or long term assignments to developed nations. Low scores and rankings of Indian cities does not reckon a provision of hardship or quality of living allowance, as the differential tends to show marked improvement in quality of living from an Indian base city.” said Ruchika Pal, Principal and India Practice Leader, Global Mobility at Mercer.

In case employees are sent to hardship locations, companies typically depend on data service providers’ recommendations to determine the hardship premiums. China's Beijing is ranked higher than any Indian city at 118. And Sri Lanka's Colombo is at 132.

Vienna, Austria's grand capital on the Danube river, offers the highest quality of life of all cities in the world, the survey says, while Iraqi capital Baghdad is at the bottom of the list. The annual survey helps companies and organisations determine compensation and hardship allowances for international staff. It uses dozens of criteria such as political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport.

Switzerland's Zurich, New Zealand's Auckland, Germany's Munich and Canada's Vancouver follow Vienna in the top five most pleasant cities in the world to live in. Vienna is number 1 for the seventh time in a row. Baghdad, victim to waves of sectarian violence since the American-led invasion of 2003, is not new to the last spot either.

Among Asian cities, Singapore tops the list at number 26, followed by four Japanese cities led by capital Tokyo. Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is number 84.