77% of Indians optimistic about India’s growing global popularity, survey finds

Aside from the 33% of people who think India will be able to create more jobs, 44% of respondents also think India ‘will create only few new jobs but many small entrepreneurs.’

Construction workers are pictured on a crane at a construction site in Mumbai, India | Reuters

New Delhi: As many as 77% of Indians expressed optimism about India’s standing in the global arena ‘improving,’ while 14% believed that it would remain the same, a LocalCircles survey has found.

The data also shows that 16% of people are optimistic about growth and prosperity for everyone, while 39% think that growth and prosperity will happen for most people in the next 4 years.

Over 80,000 people from 376 different districts in India filled out the poll. Men made up 63% of the responses, while women made up 37%. 41% of the people who answered were from Tier 1, 32% were from Tier 2, and 27% were from Tier 3.

The poll also asked how India will be able to use its demographic dividend to create enough jobs or business opportunities in the next four years. Only one in three of the 11,196 people who answered this question were optimistic about India being a great place to live.

Aside from the 33% of people who think India will be able to create more jobs, 44% of respondents think India “will create only some new jobs but many small entrepreneurs.” Another 3% said they think the government “won’t be able to create either new jobs or small entrepreneurs,” and 10% more said they think “employment opportunities and the number of small entrepreneurs will go down.”

When asked about the safety of women and children in the next four years, 52% of the people surveyed were hopeful that India would be able to make women and children safer in the next four years.

When it came to bribery, only 37% were optimistic that the situation would “get better” (have less corruption). Only 45% further thought that social stability would “improve” in the next four years, while 31% thought it would stay the same as it is now and 24% thought it would “worsen.”

For 40% of respondents, “creating enough jobs and ways to make a living” will be India’s biggest problem over the next four years. 18% said “driving economic growth,” 14% said “maintaining communal harmony,” 8% said “keeping inflation and price rises in check,” and 7% said “managing geopolitical issues” would be hard. “Containing terrorism” is still a problem for 4% of people, “handling COVID and its effects on the population” is still a worry for 3%, and “other issues not listed above” was mentioned by 2%.