Government of India among most trusted globally, but country's brands least reliable, finds Edelman Trust Barometer report

Davos: India is among the most trusted nations globally when it comes to government, business, NGOs and media but the country’s brands are among the least-trusted, according to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer report released on Monday, ahead of the the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet at Davos. The report noted that India’s Global Trust Index witnessed a marginal increase of three points to 52. China topped the Trust Index among both the informed public and the general population segments, with scores of 79 and 88 respectively. [caption id=“attachment_2056821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image of the World Economic Forum. Reuters[/caption] India was at the second place in the informed public category and third place in the general population category. The Index is the average per cent of trust in NGOs, business, government and media. The findings are based on an online survey in 27 markets covering over 33,000 respondents. The fieldwork was conducted between 19 October and 16 November, 2018. In terms of trust in companies headquartered in each market, the most trusted are those from Switzerland, Germany and Canada. The brands from these countries have a trust score of 70 each while that of Japan is 69 percent. However, companies headquartered in India, Mexico and Brazil are the least trusted, followed by China and South Korea, as per the report. While the score of India and Brazil is 40 percent, that of Mexico and China stood at 36 percent and 41 percent, respectively. The report noted that there is a growing feeling of pessimism about the future, with only one-in-three mass population respondents in the developed world believing his or her family would be better off in the next five years. Among the mass population, just one-in-five believe the system is working for them and 70 percent desire change. And despite a full-employment economy, fear of job loss remains high among the general population. This is based on views of respondents about global companies headquartered in specific countries and how much these firms are trusted by them “to do what is right”. According to the report, globally “my employer” is significantly more trusted than NGOs, business, government and media “The last decade has seen a loss of faith in traditional authority figures and institutions,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman. When it comes to reliable sources for news, search and traditional are among the most trusted. Search and traditional media have a score of 66 each, while the score of social media is 44 per cent, the report noted. “As much as 73 percent worry about false information or fake news being used as a weapon,” it added. Stephen Kehoe, global chair, Reputation at Edelman said that divergent levels of confidence between the mass population and informed public about the future signal a continued underlying rot in the structure of society. “While not everyone is taking to the streets, the data shows why protests like the Gilet Jaunes in France, the women’s marches in India and walkouts by employees at some major tech companies could become more mainstream,” Kehoe said.