Monday, December 13, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

Christmas feast: Turkey takes centre stage at dinners in Goa

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 03:29 AM PST

India’s national culinary bird, the humble chicken, has got competition this Christmas. Turkeys - big, fat, stuffed, roasted and glazed - are slowly taking centre stage at dinners in Goa, edging out the relatively lean chicken.

Demand for dressed turkey birds for the dinner table is on the rise this year, according to traders who source the exotic birds from breeding farms located in the vicinity of Goa or on the outskirts of the state.

While the arrival of the venerable, meaty and 8-12 pounder turkeys on dinner tables is a very British twist to a Portuguese-influenced psyche of Goans, those who deal in these birds in this former Lusitanian colony aren’t disappointed.

‘We offer a whole six-kilogram turkey with various kinds of stuffing. You can choose a full-baked turkey or roast turkey with your choice of stuffing. Almond sauce stuffing with red wine or herbal stuffing or orange baked stuffing or roast turkey with apple, ham and garlic or whatever suits you,’ Joel Fernandes of the Calangute-based Infantaria, a bakery-cum-restaurant, told IANS.

According to Joel, whose restaurant is extremely popular with the holiday crowd in the tourism hub 15 km from here, if you really want to dig into a turkey on the Christmas eve, there’s no room for procrastination.

‘Orders for turkeys have to be given before Dec 20. At the last minute, it is difficult to get turkey and I can’t order more. A single turkey costs a cool Rs.3,000 which can vary depending on the stuffing,’ Joel said, claiming that orders for stuffed turkeys this year have already started pouring in.

‘Unlike chicken, where sales can be quite accurately tracked because of the organized nature of business, turkeys are difficult to account. But, from a stage where once people did not even know about roast turkey 10 years ago, we are getting nearly four to five business queries every day,’ said Rudolf Lobo, who deals in fresh meats in Margao.

‘A lot of turkeys come in from farms near Goa. I peg the figure at nearly 3,000 (turkeys) for the Christmas season,’ he said.

Turkeys are raised and bred in small farms on the outskirts of Goa, often by poultry dealers, who then sell the dressed birds to various fresh and frozen meat outlets spread across the state.

A week or two before Christmas, it is not an uncommon sight to see a couple of young, rustic lads bringing a small flock of 20-30 birds to towns whereh they set up a makeshift camp and sell the gluttonous birds to would be Christmas revellers.

‘Goa is one of the best markets for turkey during Christmas. We sell them to Bangalore and Mumbai too. Most birds weighing 3-4 kg are sold for Rs.600-700,’ said Altaf Sheikh, who brokers the birds by buying them from farms in Karnataka and selling them to hotels and restaurants.

Hotels and restaurants along the state’s coastline buy the birds for their grand Chirstmas dinner, which is a hit with foreign tourists, mostly from Britain and Russia who throng the beach villages.

‘Starred hotels are big buyers. Most of the big orders I get are from starred hotels,’ said Joel.

According to him, the demand for turkeys could have been spurred in Goa by European tourists, especially those from Britain, who like to keep a date with their Christmas tradition, even while holidaying in the sunshine on Goan beaches.

But once the meat-loving Goans sunk their teeth into the succulent bird, they simply could not have enough of it.

‘Even though British, besides Fins, Dutch and other Scandinavians, seek turkey, the major buyers are Goans,’ Joel said.

Roast turkey substituted the wild goose as a mainstay on the dinner table on Christmas for most English homes, after captive farming of the bird made it more easily available than the goose some time in the last century.

But for those of whom spending Rs.3,000 on an edible dinner table centre-piece is a lot of money, there’s always the duck, which is meat all right but falls way short of quality.

‘Ducklings are also available but because the quality of Indian ducks are not too good the demand is less. The meat is very hard. Duckling in ginger sauce is one of the options,’ Joel said.

Courtesy:Sify
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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

What’s in a word? Goa to host 3-day lit fest

Posted: 12 Dec 2010 06:00 AM PST

Its raining festivals in Goa this season. After the recently concluded, international film festival of India (IFFI), the state will now get a chance to indulge in literature.

The three-day Goa Arts and Literary Festival on December 12 at the International Centre Goa (ICG) is inspired by the famous Jaipur Literary Festival and Hay Literary Festival. “It will be deeply rooted to Goa with the involvement of musicians, painters, filmmakers, architects and designers apart from writers,” said Nandini Sahai, director of ICG who wants to make it an annual affair. Jnanpith Award-winner U R Ananthamurthy will be the guest of honour while Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly and president of ICG Pratapsingh Rane will be the special guest.

The festival is organised by ICG in partnership with the Sahitya Academy, Goa Writers Group, Goa Konkani Academy, Gomantak Marathi Academy Harper Collins and Goa Tourism. Prominant authors and writers will participate in the festival

The festival is open to all and will feature a variety of presentations and readings by various authors and other events such as plays, music performances, with the primary focus of promoting and interacting with authors, artists and readers. Four books will also be released during the festival.

Courtey:TOI

Nine of family, driver die in Maharashtra accident

Posted: 12 Dec 2010 04:28 AM PST

Nine members of a family and a driver were killed when their vehicle collided with a bus in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district Sunday morning, police said.

The accident took place near Khed when the speeding Tavera, driven by 22-year-old Suraj Shankar Jadhav, was taking a sharp curve at Kashedi Ghat on the Bombay-Goa highway to Mumbai.

The Tavera hit a Volvo luxury bus, coming from the opposite direction bound for Goa, around 4 a.m. when the occupants of the two vehicles were in deep sleep, a police official said.

The family members who died were — Pradeep Maruti Khelte, 28, Anant Ganpat Khetle, 55, Prema Anand Khetle, 48, Vishnu Ganpat Khetle, 46, Taramati Mahadev Khetle, 58, Mahadev Khhetle, 70, Vinaya Vishnu Khetle, 40, Anjana Ganpat Khetle, 80, and Sangeeta, whose age is not yet known.

Volvo bus driver M.K. Fernandes, 31, was seriously injured and was reported to be critical in a Khed government hospital, the official said.

The Khetle family hailed from Kutgiri village in Ratnagiri, around 200 km from Mumbai.

Courtesy:Sify

Goa’s lifeguards call off strike, get back to beaches

Posted: 11 Dec 2010 10:28 AM PST

Goa’s beaches are again safe for swimming as more than 300 lifeguards have called off their six-day old strike Saturday, a private beach management agency official said.

V. Kanwar, chief operating officer of the Drishti Special Response Service (DSRS), said that the lifeguards who had struck work protesting low pay and long work hours, resumed duties unconditionally Saturday. DSRS is in charge of the lifeguard operation on Goa’s 105-km long coastline.

‘The strike stands withdrawn and lifeguards have started arriving on beaches. We expect that by Saturday evening or Sunday morning, we will have full strength on the beaches,’ Kanwar told reporters here.

He also said that 54 lifeguards who had been leading the strike would not be hired back by the beach management company.

‘We have terminated the services of 54 lifeguards, so in all we have 440 lifeguards left. We have advertised vacancies and for selection of more lifeguards,’ Kanwar said.

The state’s tourism industry Friday urged the state government to intervene and get lifeguards back to Goa’s beaches, ahead of Christmas and New Year season, which sees a tourism peak.

For the last six days, a skeletal force of lifeguards was manning the state’s beaches.

Goa’s tourism season from October to March sees nearly 2.4 million tourists, of whom half a million are foreigners drawn by Goa’s sunny beaches.

Courtesy:Sify
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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

Guv gifts Goa Univ. a committee for introspection

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 07:34 PM PST

, feels it’s time for introspection for the state’s lone university on its completion of 25 years.

The chancellor has therefore formed an academic audit committee that will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the university and present its findings early next year.

Speaking at the 23rd annual convocation of the Goa University on Friday, Sidhu told the thousand-plus audience, “Periodical assessment of systems operating at the university is essential. The committee will audit academic achievements and draw a roadmap for the future.”

The five-member academic audit committee will be headed by honorary professor from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics at Bangalore, Vinod Gaur, and will table its report in February, 2011.

Said Sidhu, “The larger objective of this committee is to evaluate the contribution of the Goa University to the state, and to suggest ways and means (for it) to emerge as a strong player in the domain of knowledge production and dissemination.”

A Gnanam, ex-chairman and director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council; Errol D’Souza, faculty member from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; A R Vasavi, professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore; and V R Shirgurkar, ex-principal of Margao-based Smt Parvatibai Chowgule College are the other members on the committee.

The Goa University completed 25 years on June 30 this year, and the convocation ceremony was held for the first time at its Jubilee Hall, built at a cost of 45 lakh.

While the sound system at the impressive hall was non-existent at times, a ceiling fan gave those sitting below it a hard time as it rotated rather dangerously.

Friday morning’s unexpected showers too played spoilsport by reducing the freshly mud-filled area around the new hall to muck.

But smiles on the faces of the students who took home their degrees conveyed the message that such glitches made no difference in the joy of a convocation ceremony.

A total of 39 students from varied faculties received their doctorates, even as 53 received medals, 33 were handed special prizes and 14 were provided with scholarships.

A total of 6,517 students were conferred various undergraduate degrees and diplomas, even as 762 postgraduate students received their masters degrees. The latter included 223 students from the science stream, 114 from the social sciences stream, 230 from the arts and commerce streams and 195 from professional colleges.

In his address, Goa University vice-chancellor, D Deobagkar, said the university will introduce three courses in the new academic year.

“A five-year integrated MSc Ocean Science and Technology course is being considered by the department of earth sciences, government of India, for support at the national level,” he said.

“A new MBA programme involving hotel management and tourism and a similar BBA course in culinary education are also proposed to be initiated,” he added.

A National Nodal Centre for Marine Microbial Culture Collection is also likely to be established, said Deobagkar, adding that it will network with other centres and industries across the country. CM Digambar Kamat and law commission chief Ramakant Khalap were in the audience.

Courtesy:TOI

Goa is more than a tourist paradise for Abhishek

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 08:14 AM PST

Abhishek Bachchan who plays a police officer from Goa in his upcoming movie ‘Dum Maro Dum’, says he got to know a completely different side of the tiny tourist state during the shoot of the film. “The film is about a police officer from Goa. Hence, shooting in Goa for ‘Dum Maro Dum’ has been a great experience as the film is based there,” Abhishek said.

“Usually as tourists when you go to Goa, you get to know more of the touristic sites. But during this shoot, we actually got to see more of the local places in Goa and literally experienced that the place is more than just the resorts, so it was very interesting,” Abhishek recalled.

He agreed that Goans have been typecast in certain way in many movies. “The image of drinking and making merry is not an accurate account of what the Goan people are. People are very loving and sweet, unfortunately they get typecast but that is not what I have noticed,” he added.

Abhishek said he liked outdoor shoots very much. “I am fine shooting anywhere and any place actually, at the end of the day, I am an actor and I am just here to do the job. I am not particular that way about within India or abroad - I will go anywhere, wherever the film requires,” he said.

However, Abhishek says actors get so busy working on outdoors that even though they get opportunity to travel to all the beautiful and historical places but are not able to actually spend time and learn about the place.

The 34-year-old actor said one of his first memories of Goa was during the shooting of his father’s 1983 film ‘Pukar’.

“One keeps going back to Goa every now and then but over the last 12 months, I have spent a huge amount of time there because I have shot three films in Goa - ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se’, ‘Dum Maaro Dum’ and now the first schedule of ‘Players’,” he said.

Abhishek said the first of his films that has been shot entirely in Goa is the recently released ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se’.

“Otherwise I have earlier also shot certain portions for ‘Dhoom’ and ‘Dhoom 2′ in Goa.”

Shooting in Goa has an advantage, he said adding that it is impossible that any visitor will not like the food.

Courtesy:MSN
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Friday, December 10, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

CBI should probe SEZ scam in Goa: Activist

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 09:06 PM PST

“The SEZ land scam is the mother of all scams in Goa and the present government functionaries,including speaker Pratapsing Rane, power minister Aleixo Sequeira, GIDC chairman Chandrakant Kawlekar and others should immediately resign on moral grounds,” demanded John Philip Pereira, one of the earliest petitioners against the allotment of land for SEZs in Goa.

Nagoa-based Pereira, who along with August Monteiro of Loutolim filed writ petition number 263/08, addressed a press conference on Thursday to highlight some of the lesser known facts of the ” SEZ scam”.

Pereira, who is now a member of Village Groups of Goa and Voice of Villagers, said a CBI investigation should be conducted and an FIR should be filed against the above persons.

He wants then industries minister Luizinho Faleiro, then GIDC MD A V Palekar, the GIDC board members of the 287th meeting who abstained from attending or failed to file objections to the illegalities of the meeting, to be included in the FIR.

Pereira, whose petition has been disposed in the recent high court order which ruled that land allotted to SEZs in Goa was illegal, also made other demands.

He demanded that professionals be appointed on the GIDC board of directors, a stop to the further land acquisition in the Verna industrial area, auction of land to industries after a certain area is exceeded, and a perceptive plan of development of industrial infrastructure.

Pereira also demanded that all land allotted allowing third party rights should be reverted to the GIDC, including land under the 20-point programme in phase IV.

Pereira also held responsible the members of the 288th board meeting who approved and confirmed the minutes of the 287th board meeting and the board of directors who allotted land to Maxgrove in the 288th board meeting held on May 2, 2006.

Pereira said only Rane and Faleiro are being accused of allotting land to SEZs in Goa. What no one has highlighted is that in the GIDC’s 287th board meeting, only four members were present-chairman Kawlekar, director Sequeira, director Nitin Kunkolienkar and MD Palekar.

Said Pereira, “The decision to allot land in GIDC’s 287th board meeting was taken without a proper quorum. There had to be five members, but only four were present. And land was allotted the very next day even before Goa’s SEZ policy was notified on July 13, 2006. In the process of allotment, open space and internal roads were allotted free of cost without the board’s permission and later charged at Rs 100 per sq m.”

He pointed out to other irregularities through a hand out. He said Planet View Mercantile Co Pvt Ltd was registered on April 26, 2006. But land was allotted to it before it was registered. Peninsula Pharma was also not registered. Many of the other companies were also registered within the last six months. “Applications came on April 13, but notices of the board meeting were ready on April 12. Agenda was circulated on the eve of the meeting, i.e. on April 17 and 18,” Pereira claimed.

On the land allotment to Meditab at Keri, he said mandatory direction under Section 16 of the GIDC Act was not there and therefore the allotment was illegal

Courtesy;TOI
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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

BIRTH DAY GREETINGS TO MADAM SONIAJI

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 10:24 AM PST

Many Many Happy Returns of The Day

To

Our Beloved Leader Madam Sonia Gandhi

Honorable Congress President

We Pray to Almighty God to give her Good  Health, Long and Prosperous Life and Extra Energy to Serve Our Country.

Shri.J.T.Vaz

Chief Organizer

Goa Pradesh Congress Seva Dal

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

Goa SEZ scam: Kamat still to read court order

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 07:36 AM PST

Over a fortnight after the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court pointed to large-scale irregularities in the allotment of 32 lakh sq mts of land to seven SEZ promoters in Goa, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat claims he ’still has not read the order’.

Based on the Nov 26 high court order, the opposition has already called for criminal investigation of two former Congress chief ministers - Pratapsing Rane and Luizinho Faleiro - for favouring the SEZ promoters in what Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has termed a ‘Rs.100 crore scam’.

‘I have not even read the order, how can I comment,’ a smiling Kamat told IANS when asked how the state government would respond to the damning observation made by the court, which said that the government agencies had acted ‘in undue haste without proper scrutiny of their applications’ and ‘arbitrarily’ while allotting land to the SEZ promoters.

The court order also said that the ‘procedure adopted in the allotment is not fair and transparent. The allotments made by the GIDC (Goa Industrial Development Corporation) do not stand the test of reasonableness’.

‘The file is so thick,’ Kamat added.

Picking up another bulky file for demonstrative effect, the chief minister said, while mockingly shuffling the pages: ‘See, the high court order is this thick. How do you expect me to go through it?’

Parrikar has claimed that both Faleiro and Rane, currently the speaker of the Goa assembly, had been ‘hand in glove’ with the SEZ promoters and had gone out of their way to allot them huge tracts of land in violation of norms.

The BJP leader has already said that he would summon the seven SEZ promoters to probe the graft angle in the land allotment scam.

The SEZ promoters in question are Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, Cipla group, Peninsular Pharma Research Ltd, Paradigm Logistics & Distributors, Planetview Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Inox Mercentile Pvt Ltd and Maxgrow.

The state government was forced to de-notify the allotment of 32 lakh sq mts of land to the SEZ promoters in the face of stiff civil society protests some years ago. The SEZ promoters had then approached the Bombay High Court challenging the government’s denotification decision, before the court quashed and set aside their application on Nov 26.

Courtesy:Sify

Day 19: Parliament again collapses without business

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 03:46 AM PST

Parliament collapsed into din on Wednesday - the 19th day of no business - due to persistent opposition protests demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum row. Opposition MPs chanting slogans gathered near Speaker Meira Kumar’s podium the moment she opened the Lok

The government did manage to lay some papers and ministry reports on the table but nothing significant in terms of legislative bills could be accomplished.

Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, who was chairing the session, adjourned the house for the day within five minutes after 12.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned under similar circumstances.

With just three more working days left before parliament closes to meet for the 2011-12 budget, it appears that the entire winter session has been lost to protests over the alleged irregularities in the second generation telephony spectrum allotment of 2008.

The paralysis in parliament since the winter session began Nov 9 has caused serious concerns with the government losing on crucial time to pass some important legislations.

The 24 sittings of the winter session was scheduled to take up bills on land acquisition, judicial accountability, reforming accounting standards, amending labour laws and setting up a national mineral regulation authority. None of them has happened.

The government did manage to get a parliament nod for crucial supplemental spending bills by voice vote, without a debate.

As the government and the opposition remain stuck to their stand on JPC, the logjam is causing a loss of Rs 7.8 crore per day to the national exchequer.

A Raja, who was forced to quit as the IT and communication minister, is alleged to have sold spectrum licenses at rates much lower than the market causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer.

Proceedings in the Lok Sabha began with Meira Kumar expressing condolences over the loss of lives in rains in Tamil Nadu and Tuesday’s blast in Varanasi which killed a two-year-old girl and left over 20 people injured.

The house observed a minute’s silence in the memory of the dead.

Courtesy:HT

Goa Police issued notice in Israeli drug dealer case

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 01:30 AM PST

The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court Wednesday issued notice to the Goa police asking it to reply within a month to the bail application of Israeli drug dealer who was arrested here in February.

In his application, Dudu said he should be released on bail because police had not been able to file a chargesheet even 10 months after his arrest.

However, the state police said the chargesheet is delayed because the forensic examination of the drugs seized from him in February was not completed yet.

‘The Central Forensic Science Laboratory report of the Rs.3 lakh worth of drugs has not been received yet. We will file the chargsheet as soon as the results are received,’ a police officer said.

According to the police, Dudu was the lynchpin of the drug trade in north Goa, which includes narcotics hubs like Anjuna, Calangute, Arambol and Morjim - all beach stretches known for easy availability of drugs.

Police also said that Dudu was involved in the drug trade in Goa for more than a decade. He was arrested in 2008 by the Mumbai police and had earlier been served a ‘Leave India’ notice as well.

Courtesy:Sify

Goa eyes expats as resource for educational institutions

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 08:40 AM PST

Goa government wants to tap men-of-letters of Goan origin in Europe and other parts of the world to be resource persons for its educational institutions, an official said Tuesday.

‘We have asked Indian embassies across the globe to compile a list of qualified Goans who can be invited as resource persons in various institutions spread across the state,’ Goa’s commissioner for non-resident Indian (NRI) affairs Eduadro Faleiro said.

‘We have requested the embassies for information and contact details of qualified Goan expatriates, scientists, information technologists, educationist and others,’ the former minister of state for external affairs said, adding that once the list was compiled, the state government would individually contact the persons.

‘A significant number of Goans live in European Union member states such as Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxembourg. We want to utilise their talents for the betterment of the state they hail from,’ he said.

Courtesy::Sify

Goa activists want highway consultant penalised

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 08:12 AM PST

Activists protesting the expansion of a national highway in Goa Tuesday demanded the recovery of Rs.9 crore fee from a foreign consultant for preparing an allegedly faulty project report.

The consultant firm should be forced to pay back Rs.9 crore fee it charged to prepare site plans for a project funded by the union ministry of road transport and highways, said a representative of the protestors.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference here, Sunil Desai, convenor of the National Highway Diversion Action Committee (NHDAC), said that a government land acquisition report had revealed that the project report prepared by the US-based Wilbur Smith Associates (WSA) was ridden with discrepancies.

The committee has challenged the expansion of the NH 4A - that starts from Belgaum in Karnataka and ends at Panaji in Goa. The highway is 153 km long.

‘We demand that the government should reclaim the Rs.9 crore given to WSA because a deputy collector’s report has said that there are numerous discrepancies in the work,’ Desai said.

According to deputy collector Anthony D’Souza’s report, the process of site inspection and identification of the boundaries of the land notified for acquisition, it was observed that there were major discrepancies in the site plans prepared by the consultant.

The consultant has gone off track while showing the area required to be acquired and the area already in possession of the state government of Goa, said the deputy collector’s report.

The NHDAC is protesting the state government’s move to acquire 51.60 lakh square metres of land for the expansion of the highway.

The committee claims that the government should seek an alternative route for the highway, instead of expanding the current highway and bulldozing homes along the motorway.

Courtesy:Sify
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

North Goa collector feels Bicholim’s mining heat

Posted: 06 Dec 2010 06:55 PM PST

Collector of North Goa Mihir Vardhan, along with Pali MLA Pratap Gawas and government officials, visited Surla and other mining areas in Bicholim taluka to see for himself the problems faced by the locals due to the mining transportation.

The collector has fixed a meeting at Panaji in his chamber on December 7, to discuss the problems and find a solution.

Villagers from Pali constituency have lodged several complaints regarding the hardships faced by them due to the plying of mining trucks for the last several years.

The affected villagers had even blocked the road in Surla and surrounding areas on several occasions.

Deputy collector Narayan Gad had imposed several restrictions on mining trucks in connection with the complaints filed by the affected people of the area.

Accordingly, mining vehicles were directed not to ply before and after class hours to avoid inconveniencing and endangering the lives of school children.

However, these restrictions could not control the air and noise pollution. The life of common people had become unbearable due to the large number of mining vehicles plying on the road. The public transport system was also badly affected due to the alleged rash and negligent driving by mining vehicles.

According to MLA Gawas, “For the last two decades we are affected by mining transportation but during the last five years increasing number of vehicles have added to the problem. Lack of discipline and increasing number of mining vehicles are responsible for increasing accidents on these roads.”

The collector and the MLA were caught up in a traffic jam as their vehicles were held up in the middle of mining trucks.

Gawas said, “The existing roads in the mining belt were built long ago. They are narrow and overburdened and need to be broadened and maintained from time to time.” Vidya Satardekar from Surla said, “Many of our generation became victims of air and noise pollution generated by the ore carrying vehicles. Life in these areas is affected by pollution. We have to live, eat and drink with dust which is now suffocating. Either mining transportation should be stopped or we should be rehabilitated.”

The villagers also brought to the notice of the collector the need to undertake the construction of an alternative road, meant for mining vehicles, from Kothambi to Amona junction on a priority basis.

Courtesy:TOI

Goa Figures at 18 in India’s most competitive cities

Posted: 06 Dec 2010 09:42 AM PST

The national capital was the most competitive city to do business in the country in 2010, as per a new report, which based its findings on the metropolitan’s infrastructure and business environment.

According to the City Competitiveness report released today by the Institute for Competitiveness (IFC), Delhi is the the most competitive out of the nation’s 50 cities.

“Its position is augmented by its surrounding hinterland forming the National Capital Region (NCR) and an improved physical infrastructure and an enabling business environment,” the report noted. Chennai cornered the second position in the list ahead of Mumbai , which dropped to third place from second position last year.

Chennai’s ranking improved on the back of good performance under all the sub-indices used to benchmark the cities, particularly its educated workforce and logistics infrastructure, while Mumbai’s fall was primarily due to the worsening state of its physical infrastructure.

Bengaluru is at fourth place in the list, followed by Kolkata, Hyderabad , Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur and Jaipur.

The report is based on factors like demand conditions, a context for firm strategy and rivalry; and support and related industries. A city would need to improve in terms of all these factors to increase its competitiveness.

“Based on the findings this year, it is clear that Indian cities are yet to develop a clear vision of their future and identify a definite competitive edge.

“Policy makers, too, are struggling with ways of managing infrastructural and developmental challenges that plague even the most competitive Indian cities. It is more important than ever for Indian cities to put into place the fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development in order to propel overall growth for the country as a whole,” Institute for Competitiveness Honorary Chairman Amit Kapoor said.

Interestingly, Ahmedabad and Pune have emerged as the most competitive tier-two cities in India. While Ahmedabad performs very well in the administrative sub-index — indicating good governance, municipal efficiency and low crime rates — Pune excels in terms of its physical infrastructure and high quality workforce.

Among the other cities features in the list are Chandigarh (11th), Surat (12th), Gurgaon (13th), Indore (14th), Coimbatore (15th), Kochi (16th), Noida (17th), Goa (18th), Shimla (19th) and Kanpur (20th).

Courtesy:ET
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