Yet again, Delhi has been declared the most competitive city in the nation for the third time in a row. The second place was occupied by Mumbai, revealed a report filed by an international body, Institute for Competitiveness on Wednesday.

Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata follow the top two cities in that order making way into the top 5 places. India City Competitiveness Report 2012 has stated that Faridabad has witnessed great development and has elevated to the 29th position this year. Guwahati had also shown a promising growth.

The India Competitiveness Report 2012, the fifth edition, is based on a model that has been developed by Bishop William Lawrence who works as a professor at the Harvard Business School and management guru, Michael E Porter.

First ranked in competitiveness, Delhi, the report says, had a phenomenal growth with an equilibrium between the demand and development. However, administrative and institutional support put it lower in the international ranking.

Noida, a city just outside Delhi, has been witnessing great growth and is a strong contender to the metros. Pune and Ahmedabad went down a few places yet remained in the top 10. Smaller cities like Coimbatore, Mysore, Madurai and Guwahati improved their rankings while Surat, Lucknow, Agra and Allahabad have gone down.

Compared to International cities, India has a lot to work on as Delhi rated at 46.7 is farther away from New York 71.4, London 70.4, Hong Kong at 69.3 and Shangai benchmarked at 55.2.

The top 10 cities with their respective scores are as below

-Delhi: 69.732, Mumbai: 67.856, Chennai: 62.323, Hyderabad: 61.782, Kolkata: 61.464, Gurgaon: 61.167, Bengaluru: 61.100, Noida: 60.406, Pune: 59.854, Ahmedabad.

AW Anil