According to the latest report of the Ipsos What Worries the World global survey, in December, we have at least 7 in 10 (70%) Urban Indians believing that India is moving in the right direction.
India is placed 2ndin the pecking order in optimism, Saudi Arabia comes up tops with at least 86% of its citizens polled believing their country is moving in the right direction.
At least 65% of the global citizens were downbeat about the prospects of the country and Peru (88%) and Colombia (86%) were most pessimistic believing their respective countries were on wrong track.
Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India, elaborating on the positive sentiment among Indians attributed it to the bounce back and the reopening and a resurgence in consumer spending and moving towards normalcy. “The survey is about governance and our cautious approach in the last few months has led to increased vaccination and mass reductions in community transmissions and this is reflected in high optimism among urban Indians. But Omicron has hit our market and the numbers are going up. Stringent Covid protocols will need to be the order of the day to tackle the virus in the initial stages.”
World Worries Vs India Worries
Coronavirus has once again emerged as the no.1 global worry due to the spread of Omicron and the number of cases of infections going up, esp. in Europe. Even for India Coronavirus is among the top 3 worries and has climbed by a notch in worry levels as compared to last month.
| WORLD WORRIES | OVER LAST MONTH | INDIA WORRIES | OVER LAST MONTH | |
| 1 | Coronavirus (32%) | +4% | Unemployment (41%) | -3% |
| 2 | Poverty & Social Inequality (31%) | -1% | Financial/ political corruption (29%) | – |
| 3 | Financial & political corruption (28%) | – | Coronavirus (29%) | +1 |
| 4 | Unemployment (28%) | -2% | Crime & violence (25%) | – |
| 5 | Crime & violence (27%) | – | Poverty & social inequality (25%) | -4% |
“These top issues emerging for India – unemployment, financial & political corruption and coronavirus will need maximum focus to mitigate their impact,” added Adarkar.
Coronavirus worries these markets most
The Coronavirus worries Malaysia most (53%) (+2) and has climbed up by 2% over the previous month. The figures for some markets are very stark where worry levels in December as compared to Nov have drastically shot up: Netherlands (52%) +19%; Germany (51%) +23%; South Korea (47%) -2%; and Belgium (44%) +16%.
India in placed 18th in the pecking order among 27 markets.