Indians Worry About...

Corruption and financial or political scandals are the biggest worries for 71 percent Indians, revealed a global poll by Ipsos. The Ipsos poll was conducted among 18,687 global citizens in 24 Countries to assess the most worrying issues, direction and satisfaction in their country.

Terrorism is the second biggest worry (38 percent), followed by Crime and Violence (34 percent), Poverty and Social Inequality (31 percent), Unemployment and jobs (28 percent), high tax rate (15 percent) and healthcare and education both (14 percent).

Biswarup Banerjee, Head Marketing Communications, Ipsos India said “India has been rocked lately by a series of corruption scandals that have embarrassed the government, rattled markets and delayed reform bills as the opposition stalled parliament and government was busy tackling agitation for strong anti-corruption Citizens Ombudsmen ‘Jan Lokpal’ bill lead by Anna Hazare.”

Banerjee added that “The country, 87th in Transparency International's rankings based on perceived levels of corruption, is no stranger to scandals, thus it is not a surprise to see Indians are most worried about corruption and financial or political scandals.”

The poll revealed that only 45 percent Indians believe that things in India are heading in the right direction currently, which is a big drop of 27 points from a year back when the Indian economy was registering healthy growth in spite of global slowdown. Even satisfaction level with how things are going in the country has declined to 44 percent from 71 percent a year back, a significant drop of 27 points.

“Multiple high profile corruption cases in the recent past and regular harassment faced by ordinary citizen to get a simple job done from various government departments has dented confidence of Indians in the system and given rise to deep sense of dissatisfaction,” said  Banerjee.  

Unemployment and jobs is the biggest area of concern for 49 percent global citizen, followed by Poverty and Social Inequality (39 percent), Corruption and Financial or Political Scandals (34 percent) and Crime and Violence (30 percent). Health care followed next at 23 percent, taxes at 20 percent and education at 19 percent.

The poll found that 77 percent citizens of Saudi Arabia think that things in their country are heading in the right direction, leading by a wide margin. Following behind are China (57 percent), Canada and Indonesia both (53 percent), Brazil (52 percent), Argentina and Turkey both (47 percent) and India (45 percent).

On the satisfaction category, almost seven in ten (67 percent) citizens of Saudi Arabia say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their country followed by Canada (59 percent), Sweden (56 percent), China and Germany both (49 percent), Australia (48 percent) and India at 44 percent.

The survey was conducted in 24 countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America.

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