Singapore topped the 2020 Smart City Index – a listing developed by the Institute for Management Development (IMD), in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD). This year’s ranking contains key findings on how technology is playing a role in the COVID-19 era.
Four Indian cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru – witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities.
Following Singapore in the list were Helsinki and Zurich in second and the third place respectively. Others in the top 10 list include Auckland (4th), Oslo (5th), Copenhagen (6th), Geneva (7th), Taipei City (8th), Amsterdam (9th) and New York in 10th place.
The index describes a ‘smart city’ as an urban setting that applies technology to enhance the benefits and diminish the shortcomings of urbanization. This year’s rankings reflect that cities have differing approaches to technology as managing the pandemic has become increasingly important in local politics, the report said.
The second edition of the SCI ranked 109 cities worldwide by capturing perceptions of randomly chosen 120 residents in each city. Citizens from 109 cities were surveyed in April and May 2020 and asked questions on the technological provisions of their city across five key areas: health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities and governance.
Among Indian cities – Hyderabad was placed at the 85th position (down from 67 in 2019), New Delhi at 86th (down from 68 in 2019), Mumbai in 93rd place (down from 78 in 2019) and Bengaluru at 95th (down from 79 in 2019).
