PM trusted more than Supreme Court: Ipsos IndiaBus ‘Trust in Institutions’ survey

New Delhi: Institutions are not built overnight. They are built on a strong bedrock and foundation of trust, transparency, integrity, values and the image being sustained over the years. 

The Ipsos IndiaBus Trust in Institutions survey has ranked the defence forces (40%) – army, navy and air force – as the most trusted institution; PM of the country (36%) is ranked second in the pecking order, with the RBI (33%) and the Supreme Court of India (33%) tied at the third spot. 

The top court was followed by the CBI (28%), Election Commission of India (28%), Parliament (25%), NGOs and Charitable the residents of Organisations (25%), media (24%), police (23%), religious leaders (23%), community leaders (22%), political parties (21%) and politicians (21%).

The survey is run on a quarterly frequency and maps the views of urban citizens across the length and breadth of the country.

Defence Forces as an institution was seen to have higher trust levels among the citizens of tier 1 cities (56%), tier 2 (53%), the north zone (53%), SEC A (46%), employed – full time/ part time (46%), students (45%), 18-30 year olds (45%) and males (43%), among others. While trust was lower in tier 3 cities (20%), the south zone (23%) and the east zone (29%). Their selfless work for the country, with unflinching dedication to the country has won them the top most rank.

In case of the PM of the Country as an institution, trust levels were higher among the citizens of the north zone (54%), tier 1 (54%), tier 2 (47%) and students (44%). While trust was abysmally low among the south zone citizens (9%).

Institutions lowest on the trust deficit were the politicians and the political parties. While lots of educated and learned politicians are joining the fray, and the rank and file, and also contributing immensely to nation building, yet largely they were perceived with skepticism.

Parijat Chakraborty, Group Service Line Leader, Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation, ESG and CSR, said, "Some common traits in the top ranked institutions would be their non partisan way of functioning, fair decision making and their contribution to a large extent being in the larger good of the nation. Whether the defence forces, PM of the country, the RBI, the Supreme Court, citizens believe in their values and perceive them with a lot of respect in terms of their iconic status and being symbols of truth and ethics."

"Politicians and political parties continue to fair low in trust, as despite their contribution and squeaky clean image, the general negative perception precedes them, about being corrupt and with a tainted image. It should be the attempt of the politicians and the political parties to shift the perception by sprucing up their image by sharing their pathbreaking initiatives, to amplify their work to the key audiences and the electorate," Chakraborty added.
                
Methodology: Ipsos IndiaBus is a monthly pan India omnibus (which also runs multiple client surveys), that uses a structured questionnaire and is conducted by Ipsos India on diverse topics among 2200+ respondents from SEC A, B and C households, covering adults of both genders from all four zones in the country. 

The survey is conducted in metros, Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, providing a more robust and representative view of urban Indians. The respondents were polled face to face and online. We have city-level quota for each demographic segments that ensure the waves are identical and no additional sampling error. The data is weighted by demographics and city-class population to arrive at national average.