At least 79 per cent of Indians have a favourable view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and most of them see the country’s global influence strengthening in recent years, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
Only about 20 per cent of Indian respondents had an unfavourable view of Modi, who is now in the final year of his second prime ministerial term.
India is also popular abroad as people in most nations of the G20 have a favourable view of India, the survey states. In Israel, with whom Delhi has been strengthening security and economic cooperation in recent years, 71 per cent of respondents had a favourable view of India. This was the highest figure among all surveyed nations.
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The new survey examines views of India and its political leaders in and outside of India, as well as Indians’ views of other countries.
The survey of over 30,000 people across 24 countries, conducted between February and May this year by the Pew Research Centre, shows that India is viewed favourably with a 46 per cent median, while 34 per cent look at India unfavourably.
The survey also asked people in 12 of these countries about their view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and 40 per cent said they lacked confidence in him “to do the right thing in world affairs”, while 37 per cent were confident that he would.
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At the same time, when views about India measured earlier were compared with this year’s survey, the Pew Research Center found that opinions about India had generally become more negative in some European nations such as France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The largest drop was seen in France, where only 39 per cent respondents held a favourable image of India in 2023 compared to 70 per cent 15 years ago.
Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all members of the G20, were not among the 24 nations where people were polled, which included India.
The survey comes less than two weeks before Modi is set to host leaders of the G20 nations in New Delhi for a summit.
Indians’ favourable view of Russia
The survey states that Indians stand out for their favourable views of Russia. Whereas a median of only 14 per cent across 22 countries have a positive view of Russia, a 57 per cent majority of Indians see Russia favourably.
Indians are also the most likely to have confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin to do the right thing regarding world affairs among all publics surveyed. Likewise, the United States is seen more favourably in India (65 per cent) than in many other countries surveyed.
When it comes to China, India stands out for the opposite reason: It is the only middle-income country surveyed where a majority has unfavourable views of China, the survey found.