New Delhi: As India prepares to roll out the red carpet to leaders and diplomats of over 40 countries, including 20 member-states, for the G20 summit in New Delhi next month, a global survey by the Pew Research Center has claimed that 23 nations, the majority of which are in the global bloc, view the country in a “generally positive” light.
According to the survey, a median of 46 per cent adults surveyed across these 23 countries “hold a favourable view of India” while 34 per cent of the respondents are not favourably disposed towards the country.
Significantly, however, the countries where people were surveyed did not include Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. All are counted as G20 member-states.
Even as the BJP bids to put Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the front and centre of its campaign for next year’s Lok Sabha elections, the global survey threw up mixed numbers on the popularity and acceptability of their biggest poll mascot.
According to the survey by the Pew Research Center, a 37 per cent median in a subset of 12 countries said they have “confidence” in PM Modi’s leadership while another 40 per cent median said they “lack confidence in him”.
The research was not only a public assessment or survey on Indian political leaders within the country but beyond. It was also a study of what or how the Indians feel about other countries.
The global study also includes a mood assessment of eight middle-income countries that Pew Research Center has not surveyed since 2019, citing “challenges of conducting face-to-face interviews during the pandemic”.
The following are the key findings of the global survey:
Indians More Likely To Believe Than Others In Rising Global Heft
About “7 in 10 Indians” surveyed said they believed that India’s global position has been elevated and the country has become “more influential” in the recent past as compared to a median of 28 per cent respondents across 19 countries, who held a similar view in 2022.
Modi ‘Popular In India’ But Reviews Mixed Elsewhere
Further, according to the survey, about “8 in 10 Indians” (79 per cent) surveyed said they favoured PM Modi. A majority of 55 per cent of these people said they held a “very favourable view” of the Indian Prime Minister.
Further, a median of 37 per cent respondents across 12 countries said they trusted PM Modi to make the “right foreign policy choices”.
However, according to the research, at least “1 in 10” respondents in each of the 12 countries surveyed did not put forth any opinion on PM Modi.
European Views Of India ‘Negative’
Significantly, according to the survey, the general outlook or views on India have taken a negative turn, rating dropped 10 percentage points, in five European countries – France, Spain, Germany, Poland and UK – where data from past years was available. Notably, the largest drop was seen in France, where just 39 per cent of respondents said they hold a favourable view of India, down from 70 per cent in 2008.