According to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer report 2019, 79% Indians believe they’ll be better off in 5 years, compared to 71% Chinese.
New Delhi: Nearly four in five Indians believe that they and their families will be better off in the next five years.
The annual Edelman Trust Barometer report 2019, released ahead of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, reported that 79 per cent of Indian respondents in its survey were optimistic about the future, and when it came to the “informed public”, the figure actually rose to 88 per cent.
In China, 71 per cent of people said their lives will be better in the next five years.
The survey, conducted online, is based on 27 markets, covering over 33,000 respondents between 19 October and 16 November 2018.
The report comes in the wake of the International Monetary Fund’s projection of 7.5 per cent growth rate for India in 2019 and 7.7 per cent growth rate in 2020, despite global economic uncertainties. According to the IMF, India will remain the fastest growing economy in the world.
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#MeToo and other key observations
The report took note of the #MeToo movement that gathered momentum globally in 2017-18. In India too, several instances of alleged sexual harassment at workplace came to light, underlining the need to focus on women’s safety, and thereby increasing their participation in overall workforce.
“In India, millions of women formed a human wall to spotlight gender equality,” the survey noted. “It does appear that overall, women are less trusting than men. Women in the general population show distrust in 15 out of 27 markets, four more markets than men.”
The report also observed that 84 per cent Indians believe they have a strong relationship with their employers — a dip of three percentage points compared to last year.
“As people look for change, they are increasingly turning to CEOs to lead it — from positive change on prejudice and discrimination, to training for the jobs of tomorrow, to sexual harassment,” the report said.
It added that while people have been using the tools available to them to educate themselves and amplify opinions and information, trust in social media as a source of information remains significantly lower than trust in traditional media sources in all regions of the world.
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Trust factor
Overall, 83 per cent of the informed public in India showed a high level of trust in the government, businesses, NGOs and the media.
China topped the list, followed by Saudi Arabia and India.
Other countries that rated high on the trust factor were Indonesia, UAE, Canada and Malaysia. Ireland, Spain and Russia, meanwhile, ranked the lowest on the chart, revealing “distrust”. Australia, France, South Africa and Japan were placed in a “neutral” zone.
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That is what some would call the chaos of democracy.