"While India is perceived to have made a significant progress as a country, only 15 per cent Indians feel their quality of life has improved," the AC Nielsen survey conducted on the occasion of the 60th year of Independence said.
However, this did not hamper the patriotic feeling as 89 per cent respondents wished to be reborn as Indians if they were given a choice. The 11 per cent who did not wish to be reborn as Indians comprised mainly youth aged between 15-24 years.
Young people today are more informed, curious about everything and are aggressive. It is not surprising that some would aspire to something new and different if they had a choice, Nielsen Company Measurement Science and Technical Training Director N S Muthukumaran said.
The respondents felt India has improved its position in the past decades in the fields of business and commerce (57 per cent), science and technology (43 per cent) and education (19 per cent).
Among the least progressed fields in Independent India, politics tops with 39 per cent, while 82 per cent respondents feel corruption needs to be eradicated. Poverty eradication programme and law and order follow politics as the least progressed areas.
Sports is another area where the poor performance of the country is reflected as only one per cent of respondents feels India has made progress in this segment and more than 50 per cent of participants feels that political interference and inadequate infrastructure are the reasons behind the poor performance.
Poverty eradication would be the most important step for driving India's future development, feels 65 per cent of the Indians who were surveyed. Infrastructure and transportation along with improved law and order conditions come a close second with a 64 per cent respondents voting for it, while about 62 per cent feels that local education system needs to be uplifted to gain the status of a developed country.
Globalisation has been a much-debated topic over the years. In the survey, around 62 per cent respondents think Globalisation has been beneficial. Better employment opportunity, greater exposure to new technologies, improvement in the standard of living and the state of infrastructure are the major plus points cited by the respondents on this front.
However, the biggest concern was the harmful effect that globalisation would have on local industries. Besides, about 60 per cent thinks it would adversely impact farmers and agriculturists.
51 per cent opined tit would lead to loss of Indian values and culture. A little over half the respondents (54 per cent) feels that the pace of globalisation is just right, while 35 per cent thinks India is globalising too fast and about 11 percent feel the process is too slow.
