Optimism rife among Urban Indians for Circa 2024, with 87% expecting it to be a better year: Ipsos Global Advisor 2024 Predictions
65% urban Indians polled believe artificial intelligence will lead to many new jobs being created in the country; 66% Indians believe people in the country will become more tolerant of each other.
Ipsos Global Predictions for 2024 shows a positive outlook emerging for the year 2024 with 87% urban Indians and 70% global citizens predicting it to be a better year.
And 8 in 10 urban Indians (84%) say they are willing to make personal resolutions and specific changes for themselves in 2024. And 85% Indians are also hopeful of the global economy doing better in 2024.
2023 was a bad year
The local and global verdict on the year 2023 shows a great deal of disappointment, with 65% of urban Indians pronouncing it a bad year for India and 64% calling it a bad year for them and their family. 70% global citizens felt it was a bad year for their country and 1 in 2 global citizens (53%) felt it was a bad year for them and their family.
The markets most unhappy with 2023 were Argentina (88%), Sweden (84%), Turkey (84%), Great Britain (83%), Portugal (82%), South Korea (82%) and Hungary (82%).
The survey captured views of citizens on a host of issues, with their predictions for 2024.
Economy
Most urban Indians expect cost of living to go up, with 71% believing prices in the country will increase faster than people’s incomes. 79% global citizens echo similar views.
7 in 10 urban Indians (70%) further believe inflation will be higher in 2024 as compared to 2023. 68% urban Indians expect interest rates to be higher in 2024 as compared to 2023. 66% expect unemployment to be greater in 2024 versus 2023.
TechnologyImpact of technology in 2024 is likely to be a mixed bag. 61 per cent urban Indians expect artificial intelligence leading to loss of many new jobs in the country. 56% Indians fear their personal data being leaked on the internet in 2024. 67% urban Indians expect doctors in India to use artificial intelligence regularly, to decide on treatments for their patients. Interestingly, 61% urban Indians believe in 2024, robots will look, think and speak like humans. The biggest upside, 65% urban Indians polled believe artificial intelligence will lead to many new jobs being created in the country. And 57% urban Indians plan to use social media less in 2024.
Environment
Climate change has been wreaking havoc around the globe.
In 2024, 65% urban Indians expect more extreme weather events in the country than seen in 2023. 60% Indians also fear a natural disaster hitting a major city. And 70% urban Indians expect the average global temperature to increase.
At the same time 67% urban Indians polled expect the govt to introduce more demanding targets for reducing carbon emissions quickly, in 2024. While 63% urban Indians expect more restrictions to be introduced to reduce the amount people drive in their cars in the country.
SocietyPredictions for 2024 are optimistic. 71% urban Indians expect women to be paid the same as men for the same work. 71% expect India to win more medals in the 2024 Summer Olympics than the last one. 66% Indians believe people in the country will become more tolerant of each other.
69% urban Indians predict office workers spending more time in the office than at home, in 2024. 86% Indonesians held this view, 78% Malaysians and 76% Chinese.
63% Indians expect the level of immigration into the country to increase in 2024. Markets predicting most influx included, Portugal (87%), Turkey (82%), Singapore (82%) and Italy (79%).
And 1 in 2 Indians (53%) expect the total size of the population of the country to fall in 2024. For a country that has become the world’s most populous nation.
Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India said, “Majority of our citizens have a positive outlook for 2024, predicting it to be better for them. Though they are bracing themselves up for a tougher year in terms of inflation, rising prices, higher interest rates and higher unemployment. Year 2023 was a bad year is the majority verdict. The year saw many upheavals due to inflation, rise in prices of essential commodities, yo-yo of fuel prices, drought and floods and violence in certain parts of the country. The predictions for 2024 hinge a lot on optimism, of office workers going more often physically to work, govt taking stringent measures to reduce the carbon footprint, pay parity of women with men doing the same work, citizens becoming more tolerant of one another and India bagging more medals in its kitty in the summer Olympics. AI is expected to stave off some jobs and create new ones, so this will put a lot of emphasis on reskilling. Cautious optimism is the approach for 2024, as there is also fear of a new more severe pandemic and natural disasters.” About this study
These are the results of a 34-country survey conducted by Ipsos on its Global Advisor online platform and, in India, on its IndiaBus platform, between Friday, October 20 and Friday, November 3, 2023.
For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 25,292 adults aged 18 years and older in India, 18-74 in Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States, 20-74 in Thailand, 21-74 in Indonesia and Singapore, and 16-74 in all other countries.
