Bangalore tops the list of 21 best business destinations in the country ranked on the basis of socio-economic and infrastructure factors, according to a combined study.
Chennai is at the second position, followed by Mumbai and Pune, in the list of Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management and property consultant DTZ.
Ahmedabad is ranked 8th behind Indore (5th), Bhubaneshwar (6th) and Coimbatore (7th). Nagpur and Kochi are at ninth and tenth positions, respectively, while Hyderabad is ranked 12th.
In the NCR region, Noida is at the 17th position while Gurgaon ranks 19th.
Kolkata is placed towards the bottom of the list at 18th position. Visakhapatanam in at 21st place.
Gurgaon, one of the leading financial and industrial centres in the country, is rated relatively low as the city "loses out on availability of power, safety and environment, schools & colleges, healthcare facilities and climate".
Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management, a not-for-profit organisation working in the fields of urbanization, future cities, among other things, said that some cities in the list are already established, while others have the potential to emerge as major business destinations.
The ranking rates the cities based on factors such as human capital, energy, water, transport, housing, healthcare, climate, office space availability and city culture, amongst others.
These constitute basic eco-socio-economic factors critical in determining the growth of the city, the study said in a statement.
"While popular destinations such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune continue to occupy top positions, the ranking revealed some unexpected contenders in the top 10 league including Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi, Coimbatore and Nagpur," the statement said.
Stating that the business landscape across the country gets more saturated, it said this ranking is an attempt at identifying and creating alternate business destinations for the evolving needs of the sector.
"Rapid and unplanned urbanization in the country over the past few decades has led to unprecedented job demand. Job creation is a crucial answer to this challenge which calls for the pressing need to develop new industrial townships and business districts to ease the pressure from the already saturated business destinations," the organisation's Chairman Sankey Prasad said.
The ranking provides companies across industries and sectors with insights for future investment opportunities, he added.