Modi govt yet to improve living standards in cities: MNI survey

38% respondents say they have been unaffected so far as the govt is yet to implement major policies

The Narendra Modi-led central government’s efforts to lift the living standards of India’s citizens seem to have yielded little so far. A majority of respondents in a survey conducted by MNI Indicators, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Borse AG, said the government had not affected their standard of living, as it was yet to implement major policies.

“Of those surveyed, 38.1 per cent said they had been unaffected so far”, while 29.5 per cent felt they had benefited from the new government’s policies and 2.2 per cent said they were worse off. The rest noted any change would take time before it had any effect.

The survey did not cover rural areas and was specific to 1,000 consumers in 10 cities. MNI Indicators’ questions to respondents for its survey on monthly consumer sentiment in India included some that were specific to the Modi government and the impact of its policies on standard of living

“Many respondents praised Modi’s vision for India and were supportive of welfare schemes like the Jan Dhan Yojana, which they said were supportive to the common man.”

Only 2.2 per cent of the respondents said they were worse off, while 30.2 per cent were uncertain about the impact of the government’s policies on their standard of living.

The specific questions on the government were not considered for calculating the MNI India Consumer Indicator, which fell to 120.9 in November, the lowest in 13 months, from 123.7 in October.

MNI Indicators Chief Economist Philip Uglow said: “The Modi government has been in office for six months but there has so far been little lasting positive impact on consumer sentiment. Policy action might eventually feed through, though the outlook remains reasonably subdued for now.”

The decline in consumer sentiment was led by a sharp fall in expectations of business conditions by consumers in their related work areas over a year’s time, while consumers were less confident about spending on big-ticket items after the festival season.