Modi government storms 'trust survey' as India leaves U.S, Japan, Canada far behind

2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, in a survey conducted by a global communications and PR firm headquartered in the US, revealed that 87% of the randomly selected 1,200 respondents in India trusted the current government — a figure that's one of the highest in the world. 

According to the firm's highly rated Edelman Barometer trust and credibility survey, trust levels on the government of India has shot up by 7% since January 2020.

At a critical time during the pandemic, when the global political movement is increasingly volatile with approval ratings for popular leaders dropping like flies all over the world.

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The trust barometer is conducted based on a survey sampling of more than 1,200 respondents in each country. The respondents are all over the ages of 18. 

The findings revealed that China had 90% approval ratings, swiftly followed by India with a trust rating of 87%. Countries such as Japan and the US ranked at the bottom of the top 10 list with trust ratings of 48% or lower. The survey was conducted between April 15-April 23 and is carried out biannually. 

The firm's CEO Richard Edelman commenting on this year's survey explained, "We are living in a trust paradox. Since we began measuring trust 20 years ago, economic growth has fostered rising trust. This continues in Asia and the Middle East but not in developed markets, where national income inequality is now the more important factor. Fears are stifling hope, and long-held assumptions about hard work leading to upward mobility are now invalid."

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While at present there is a record number of countries which are experiencing an all-time high trust divide against its governments, spreading from developed and spilling into the developing world, for example, globally, there is a 14-point gap or decline in trust against governments. There are also double-digit gaps in 23 markets, including Australia (23 points), France (21 points), Saudi Arabia (21 points), Germany (20 points), the UK (18 points) and Spain (17 points). With all things considered, India's trust barometer has seen a steady increase since consistently and despite all odds, has gotten even better since January.

Sustainable rise or trust bubble?

The survey revealed a record-breaking rise in trust in governments all over the world, however, it cautioned that very few countries such as India showed evidence of a sustainable double-digit gain in trust, backed by consistent growth over the years, some like China have large trust gains often but they are quickly lost.

Most surprisingly, the countries with the lowest approval ratings had shelled out the largest economic relief packages. For example, Japan had allocated 117 trillion Japanese Yen (Rs 87,000 cr) during the covid pandemic but somehow failed to win popular vote.

Here's where you can see the full results:

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