Indians believe that war and terrorism, global warming, pollution and over-population are the biggest problems facing the world. In contrast, people living in the United States and Britain, which are facing economic slowdown, feel that economic situation is a major global challenge.
The findings were revealed on Tuesday by Sir Robert Worcester, founder of Mori, while launching King’s College London’s Global Index of Fear.
The survey by Ipsos-Mori in eight countries — Australia, Brazil, China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa UK and US — were asked what they felt were the two or three challenges that face the world and what they felt were the two or three greatest challenges facing their own country.
Global warming and war & terrorism were identified as joint greatest challenges facing the world. “Global warming is a huge concern for China as 67 per cent respondents from there identified this as the biggest issue facing the world,” Sir Robert said here on Tuesday. “However, the United States (62 per cent) and the UK (60 per cent) have identified war and terrorism as the biggest global challenge,” he said, adding that it was strange that developed countries like the United States, UK, and Australia had put global warming low on their list of challenges.
In India, 56 per cent believe war & terrorism is the biggest problem in the world, followed by global warming (53 per cent) and over-population and pollution were joint third with 29 per cent each. Poverty came a close fourth with 28 per cent for Indians.
When questioned about challenges facing their own countries, the respondents in the survey chose the economy, poverty and over-population as their major problems. “Americans (82 per cent) were the most worried about their economy and the Indians (18 per cent) were the least concerned,” Sir Robert said, adding that BRIC citizens did not worry about their national economies. For Indians, poverty (45 per cent), over-population (42 per cent) and war & terrorism (40 per cent) were the biggest problems facing India at present.
The concerns of people changed in different contexts: In global context global warming was the biggest challenge, but this dropped to the fourth place on the list of national problems. War and terrorism dropped from second place in the global context to fifth on the national context, Sir Robert revealed. The global index of fear has been created by the King’s College London for its fundraising campaign, World Questions King’s Answers, which aims to raise £500 million over the next five years. The prestigious institution, which has launched India, China and Brazil Institutes, aims to build close ties with the growing economies.