New Delhi Mumbai and Delhi which are presently reeling under water crisis will require the maximum supply of the municipal tap water in the world by 2025, according to a Mckinsey Global Institute report.

Mumbai tops the list of the 20 global cities in terms of municipal water demand in the next 13 years, followed by Delhi, the report said. Three other Indian cities — Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad — are ranked seventh, 12th and 16th respectively in the list of 20 cities needing the maximum supply.

Delhi has been named the most competitive city in India for its demonstrated ability to attract capital, business, talent and tourists by a new Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) research report.

The study, commissioned by the Citigroup, ranked Delhi at number 68 in the list of 120 of the world’s major cities. The national capital has edged out financial hub of Mumbai, which ranked 70th in the index, followed by Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, at 79th rank, Pune at 97, Chennai at 105 and Kolkata at 106.

Tokyo has this year become the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, pushing Luanda in Angola, which topped the list last year, down to second position.

Japan has two more cities, Osaka and Nagoya, in the Top 10 list at third and tenth places, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2012 by Mercer. Singapore (No. 6 on the list) and Hong Kong (No. 9) are the other Asian cities in the Top 10 list.

New Delhi Highlighting its inability to support increasing number of metro projects, the Centre has asked state governments to follow the models of Karnataka and Delhi for financing capital-intensive Metro rail projects by levying cess on residential and commercial developments, and increasing house tax. It has also urged them to set up state-level urban transport funds with such levies to finance the projects.

The Centre says its unable to support the increasing number of metro systems through the Budget and therefore wants the states to develop their own funding sources to part-finance such capital-intensive systems.

Many projects in the country may be languishing because of land acquisition problems but the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) has over the past three years acquired 70 per cent of the

UN report rates Mumbai, Kolkata as below average

Three big cities — Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore — have been rated below average compared to other mega cities in Asia-Pacific in terms of keeping pollution levels in check, said a report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Delhi is the only Indian city featured in the average category. The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2012 titled One Planet to Share: Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate today came out with a green ranking of 22 cities in the Asia-Pacific

Dismiss discoms' claim; accuse regulator of inaction

The mood was belligerent at a public hearing organised by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission here on Thursday to assess consumer feedback before finalising the new power tariff. Reacting to the discoms' demands for a power tariff hike, angry consumers not only dismissed their claims but also expressed dismay over what they alleged was DERC's “inaction”.

Cities in India are dreaming of becoming New York and London but we seldom worry about as basic an issue as sewage and its disposal in our country. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has brought out a two-volume book titled Excreta Matters: Report on the State of India’s Environment to highlight how only 20 per cent of sewage is being treated in the country. Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, talks about the murky issue plaguing the water sources in this interview to Rashme Sehgal.

The British Minister of State, department of energy and climate change, Mr Gregory Barker, said on Friday that the London Olympics 2012 would be the “greenest Olympics ever.”