The biggest worry of Indians is unemployment, although most of them believe the country is heading in the right direction, a new survey has revealed. According to a poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, unemployment has taken pole position in the list of top worries for the past three months.
As per the survey, the top five issues worrying Indians are unemployment (46%), crime and violence (37%), financial & political corruption (34%), terrorism (29%) and poverty and social inequality (28%).
But India continues to buck the global trend of pessimism, with at least 73% Indians optimistic that the country is heading in the right direction. On the contrary, at least 58% of global citizens believe that their country is on the wrong track.
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"Indians on one hand are highly optimistic about the direction the country in going in, at the same time, unemployment is the niggling worry, without any let up. Of course, another big worry is crime and violence, which has moved up by 8% from last round. At the same time, some of the concerns have shown marginal improvement over last round - financial and political corruption is down by 5%, terrorism by 2% and poverty and social inequality by 1%. All these issues need govt's attention and intervention," said Parijat Chakraborty, Country Service Line Leader, Public Affairs and Corporate Reputation, Ipsos India.
Meanwhile, the top five issues at the global level are unemployment (32%), followed by poverty & social inequality (32%), crime & violence (31%), financial & political corruption (30%) and healthcare (26%).
According to the survey, in the 27 markets across the world, at least 23 feel they are on the wrong track. The markets most buoyant are China (at 94%), Saudi Arabia (78%), India (73%) and Malaysia (60%), the survey noted.
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On the contrary, the most pessimistic were Great Britain (78%), France (77%), South Africa (74%), Belgium (74%), Spain (69%) and Hungary (68%).
The data for the study was collected from 28 countries and 19,520 respondents aged 18 and above were interviewed.
Edited by Chitranjan Kumar