72% urban Indians believe India moving in right direction; 7% surge from last round

72% urban Indians believe India is moving in the right direction and there is a 7% surge in optimism in May, from April. Of course, India continues to buck the global trend of pessimism – at least 55% global citizens are of the view their country is on the wrong track.

Interestingly, India is placed 2nd in the pecking order in optimism. At the top is Saudi Arabia, where at least 91% of those polled are confident, their market is headed in the right direction!  

These are the findings of What Worries the World, the monthly global survey conducted by Ipsos in 27 markets.

 What Worries Indians?

COVID19 continues to be the top-most worry and it has increased by 3% from April and at least 65% of those polled are worried. Unemployment is the 2nd most important worry and has seen an 11% increase from previous round and 49% urban Indians are worried about this issue. At the 3rd spot is Poverty and Social Inequality at 31%. This worry too has gone up by 8% since April.

Some of the other worries of urban Indians include Financial and Political Corruption at 28% (-5%), Healthcare, at 22% (+6%), Crime and Violence at 19% (-5%), Education at 16% (+2%), among others.

‘The top three concerns of urban Indians are interlinked and all of them are due to the prolonged pandemic and its impact. The lockdown has been a double edged sword – on one hand it has contained the virus and stopped community transmissions, at the same time it has had a serious collateral impact on jobs and finances,” said Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India. 

In April, the top issues worrying Indians were COVID19 (62%), Unemployment (38%), Financial and Political Corruption (33%), Crime and Violence (24%) and Poverty and Social Inequality (23%).       

Global citizens’ top 3 concerns mirror those of Indians

Global citizens worry about COVID19 (55%), Unemployment (42%) and Poverty and Inequality (31%) – mirroring, what bothers Indians. Notably, concern around COVID19 has somewhat receded by about 8% from April, for global citizens.   

Technical note:

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Full results available from www.ipsos-mori.com.

The survey was conducted in 27 countries around the world via the Ipsos Online Panel system. The 27 countries included are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America.

18,505 interviews were conducted between April 24th, 2020 – May 8th, 2020 among adults aged 18-74 in the US, South Africa, Turkey, Israel and Canada and age 16-74 in all other countries. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.

In 17 of the 27 countries surveyed internet penetration is sufficiently high to think of the samples as representative of the wider population within the age ranges covered: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain and United States.  The remaining 11 countries surveyed: Brazil, Chile, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey have lower levels of internet penetration and so these samples should instead be considered to represent a more affluent, connected population.  These are still a vital social group to understand in these countries, representing an important and emerging middle class.