Unemployment, graft and lawlessness top worries for Indians
New Delhi: Majority of urban Indians continue to trudge forward with optimism – at least 72% urban Indians believe that India is headed in the right direction (same as last wave, no deviation); global citizens, on the contrary are quite downbeat, with at least 61% (though improved by 4%, was 65% in the last wave) believing that they are on the wrong track.
Markets – Right direction Vs Wrong track
We delved deeper to identify the markets that are most optimistic about the future and the ones that feel their future is bleak: China (93%), Saudi Arabia (82%) and India (72%) are the most positive. While South Africa (15%), Italy (17%) and Spain (21%) are the most negative about the prospects of their country.
What Worries Indians?
Optimism of Indians, notwithstanding, there are issues bothering Indians (and global citizens as well). Top 3 issues bothering Indians remain the same as last month – Unemployment (49%, +1), Financial/ Political Corruption (39%, same) and Crime & Violence (28%, -3). Compared to previous round (Aug 2019), in Sept 2019, Unemployment has moved up by 1 point, financial/ political corruption has remained the same as Aug and Crime and Violence has reduced by 3 points in Sept.
Top niggling global issues are the same as last month – Unemployment (33%, +1), Crime & Violence (31%, -1), and Financial/ Political Corruption (31%, same).
Notably, top 3 issues that bother Indians, the same set of issues bother global citizens as well (though not in the same order). We further dug deeper to identify top markets by each of these issues.
“Urban Indians have faith in the overall trajectory for the country and overall there is a sense of optimism among citizens. At the same time, joblessness, graft and lawlessness continue to perturb them. With the recent slowdown in manufacturing, it would be interesting to see what the actual impact on the job market would be,” said Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India & Operations Director, Ipsos APEC (Asia Pacific Excluding China).
Top 3 issues and markets most affected/ concerned
- Unemployment & Jobs – South Africa (64%), Italy (62%), South Korea (58%), Spain (56%), Argentina (49%) and India (49%).
- Financial & Political Corruption – Peru (60%), South Africa (60%), Russia (53%), Hungary (52%), Malaysia (48%), South Korea (45%), Serbia (42%), Chile (39%), India (39%) and Spain (39%).
- Crime & Violence – Mexico (65%), South Africa (65%), Peru (61%), Sweden (54%), Chile (49%), Brazil (43%), Great Britain (40%), Malaysia (39%), Serbia (36%), Argentina (35%), Germany (32%), US (32%), Australia (30%) and India (28%).
