Amaravati tops the finalists of Wellbeing City Award race

AMARAVATI: In a major morale booster to the Andhra Pradesh government, the nascent capital city, Amaravati has topped the list of finalists in the prestigious Wellbeing City Award competition. The award has been instituted by globally renowned NGO, NewCities along with

Novartis Foundation

and Novartis US Foundation.


This is the first edition of the global competition to pick the best city award in the world. It recognizes cities placing well-being at the center of urban design, planning, and policies.

Interestingly, Amaravati topped among the four finalists in economy and opportunity category. Amaravati left Chicago (USA), Ljubljana (

Slovenia

) and Pune (India) behind in the race.

According to an official release from the NewCities, winner of the competition will be announced in April. The process of picking up the best city award was launched in September 2018. More than 100 cities from 27 countries and six continents were considered.
The finalist cities for the 2019 Wellbeing City Award, were categorised into four segments including community, economy and opportunity, Public Health and sustainable environment. The city of Amaravati was nominated as one of the finalists for the NewCities’ Wellbeing 2019 City Award under economy and opportunity category.

After scrutiny, 16 cities from six continents have been picked up as finalists in all the four categories for the 2019 award. As part of the final phase of the award, NewCities has brought together an esteemed jury of experts, including Arianna Huffington, Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, and Daniel Libeskind, to judge detailed applications from finalist cities. One laureate in each of the four categories and one overall 2019 Wellbeing City laureate will be announced after thorough screening. A major award ceremony and forum will be held in Montréal in mid-2019.

John Rossant, founder and chairperson of NewCities said, “Too often cities are reactively addressing well-being as a silo issue, rather than examining ways to holistically improve the quality of life for citizens for the long term and from a social perspective. Just as buildings, cars, and schools have enforceable and measurable standards, so should cities when it comes to well-being for urbanites. The Wellbeing City Award will help create data points and key performance indicators around well-being within cities that can be applied on a global scale and for cities of all sizes."

“With improving the standard of urban life as the ultimate goal, cities must be judged on activities and investments that promote well-being. We want to increase the mandate for and recognize cities prioritising well-being. And that is why we launched this important award,” he observed.


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