​Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today announced the release of its latest AlphaWise Evidence Series report, on India Urbanization – a new publication that surveys the top 200 cities in India by population. To be updated quarterly, the Morgan Stanley survey, entitled “AlphaWise City Vibrancy Index: A Guide to India’s Urbanization”, measures the key drivers of urbanization such as physical infrastructure, financial penetration, consumer services and job listings. The index helps investors evaluate companies’ strategic positioning in urban centers and monitor sector trends over time.  It also acts as a guide on the relative level of urbanization across India’s top cities.

Key findings include:

• Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune are the most vibrant cities among the top 50 cities in India (by population) on the AlphaWise City Vibrancy Index
• Interestingly, tier two cities like Mysore and Meerut are ranked in the top 10, whereas Mumbai ranks 21st among India’s top 50 cities
• Jalandhar, Aurangabad, Bhubhaneshwar, Agra and Raipur are among the “cities of opportunities”. The households in these cities earn more than India’s average urban household and hence they have scope to be more vibrant

“Urbanization is a core component to the process of city formation and building out India’s competitive strength in the global markets,” said Ridham Desai, Head of India Research and India Strategist at Morgan Stanley. “The India Urbanization findings underscore our commitment to putting clients at the forefront of the most timely investment debates.”

Additional highlights from the survey are that:

• Less than 10% of India’s top 200 cities have a 5-star hotel
• About 25% of the cities have no car dealers
• Two third have no luxury car or mid-range car dealer
• 62% of cities are awaiting a large scale retail apparel store or hypermarket
• More than half of the cities have online job search capabilities

The AlphaWise Evidence Series was first launched in India in June 2010 with the first ever corporate survey of 260 large and medium sized companies, this was followed by a farmer survey, auto survey and then the second wave of the corporate survey.  The team started 2011 with surveying the unemployed in Urban India in order to get their unique insights.

In May 2010, Morgan Stanley announced that the Firm’s India research team ranked as India’s top equity research house in the 2010 All-Asia Research Team in Institutional Investor magazine’s 17th annual rankings. The Firm also polled as the best research house for Asia economics.

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 42 countries. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.