87pc Indians feel country managed coronavirus crisis well: Survey

New Delhi, May 19 () About 87 per cent of Indians feel that their country has managed the COVID-19 crisis well, placing the country at the third place among 23 countries, according to a new survey.

According to Blackbox Research and Toluna survey, COVID-19 did not have a hugely negative impact on national mood.

"An overwhelming 87 per cent of Indians felt that their country has managed the crisis well... With an index score of 59, India is tied for third place with the United Arab Emirates amongst 23 countries in the study," the survey pointed out.

It said that more than half of Indians rated their national leaders favourably amid the crisis, with 69 per cent satisfied with their top national political leaders.

According to the survey, 45 per cent of Indians felt business leaders responded well in the COVID-19 crisis, above the global average and placing India in the top five.

Moving forward, it said one of the top things Indians want most post-crisis is better pandemic technology for contact tracing in future crises.

With an index score of 85, China tops the list with the most citizens rating its performance favourably across all four indicators, followed by Vietnam in second with an index score of 77.

New Zealand (56) is the only Western country with an index score, higher than the global average – indicating that citizens in Western countries are generally less satisfied with their countries' performances, the survey said.

On the other end of the index, Japan ranks last with an index score of 16, due to its perceived poor political performance and business leadership, as well as lacklustre community performance, it added.

Countries like Hong Kong (27) and South Korea (31) also fared poorly with its citizens.

Globally, only seven out of the 23 countries' political leaders were rated highly for their crisis response by at least 50 per cent of its citizens. Japan emerged last on the list, with only 5 per cent of its citizens rating their leaders' responses favourably.

Blackbox Research and Toluna carried out an online nationally representative survey of 12,592 people across 23 countries, aged between 18 to 80.The survey was conducted during April 3-19. BKS MR MR