It is regarded as the first smoke-free city in India and has been reported to be the cleanest in India, as per National Government Study in the year 2010.

Chandigarh headed the list of Indian states and territories according to Human Development Index and also tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories by per capita income in the country. The city was designed by Le Corbusier and eventually transformed from earlier plans created by the Polish Architect Maciej Nowicki and the American planner Albert Mayer. Most of the government buildings and housing in the city, however, were designed by the Chandigarh Capital Project Team headed by Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. The metropolitan of Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula collectively forms a Tri-city, with a combined population of over 2 million and experiences extreme climate and uneven distribution of rainfall.