According to the February 2023 wave of the Ipsos What Worries the World monthly survey, Inflation has emerged as the top worry of urban Indians with at least 1 in 2 urban Indians (52pc) choosing it as their No.1 worry; unemployment is close on the heels as the No.2 worry, among at least 45pc of those polled.
Ipsos What Worries the World monthly survey tracks public opinion on the most important social and political issues across 28 countries month after month and also captures sentiment of citizens about how they feel their country is doing.
The survey shows that urban Indians are most worried about inflation (52pc), unemployment (45pc), poverty and social inequality (28pc), financial/ political corruption (24pc), crime and violence (19pc), coronavirus (14pc) and climate change (7pc).
Global citizens were seen to be beset with concerns around inflation (43pc), poverty and social inequality (32pc), crime and violence (27pc), unemployment (27pc) and financial, political corruption (27pc).
“Urban Indians are feeling the pinch of rising prices and the increased cost of living; and inflation has overtaken unemployment and now sits as our No.1 worry. Global economic slowdown, collateral economic impact of the unending war in Ukraine, have impacted most economies of the world, but now Indians are in the throes of the negative impact. Job creation is not keeping pace, with demand for jobs far outstripping supply and even poverty and the increasing divide between the haves and have nots is a reality. Macro factors continue to pose a threat to growth,” said Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.
“This survey has a ramped-up India sample to include a large offline sample, apart from online respondents, providing a wider view as it includes citizens across SEC A, B & C from the metros, tier1, tier2 and tier3 cities. Hence this wave’s findings cannot be compared with the previous months. The enhanced sample provides a national view as compared to the previous connected audience (please see the methodology below),” said Adarkar.
India slips in Optimism
India has dropped to the fourth place in optimism with 61pc urban Indians believing India is moving in the right direction, from 65pc in January 2023. India still bucks the global trend of pessimism, with only 38pc global citizens believing their country is moving in the right direction. Interestingly, the top 3 most optimistic markets were Singapore (79pc), Indonesia (77pc) and Malaysia (72pc).
“Most of our woes are due to macro-economic factors, due to the prolonged war, which has come at the back of a naggingly long pandemic, which ripped most economies apart. India has still done better than most economies as our economy rides a lot on domestic consumption,” said Adarkar.
