Pipping past the four metro cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, the southern technology hub Bengaluru has emerged as the best city to live in India, a global survey said on Tuesday.
Despite its top Indian ranking, Bengaluru's worldwide rank is very low at 141st position in a list of 221 cities globally in terms of standard of living, compiled by the 'Quality of Living Survey - Worldwide Rankings, 2011' by the global HR (human resources) consultancy major Mercer.
Vienna has been ranked as the world's best city to live in on the global list, which has five Indian cities – Bengaluru (141st), New Delhi (143rd), Mumbai (144th), Chennai (150th) and Kolkata (151st).
Globally, Vienna is followed by Zurich, Auckland, Munich, Dusseldorf, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Geneva, Copenhagen and Bern among the top-ranked cities in terms of quality of living, Mercer said.
In another list of the world's best cities in terms of personal safety standards, Luxembourg has been placed on the top, followed by Bern, Helsinki, Zurich, Vienna, Geneva and Stockholm.
On this list, Indian cities have been ranked a little better, as Bengaluru has got 117th place, New Delhi and Kolkata shared the 127th position, Mumbai is at 142 and Chennai is placed at 108th.
Bengaluru has been ranked as the best Indian city both in terms of quality of living and the personal safety standards.
The personal safety ranking has been on measures of internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness and host-country's international relations.