Govt rejects online survey claiming 80% working Indians had income loss

The government has rejected a survey by insurance firm Generali on the economic condition in India, saying the online exercise had 599 respondents who are not representative of the country.

The survey, which claimed that 80 per cent of working Indians experienced income loss, "was done between March 27 and 31, and lockdown conditions of nearly three months back are very different from those under unlock 1.0," the government said in a statement.

Generali had released the survey on Wednesday.

"It is an online survey with a sample set of only 599. A sample of only 599 people surveyed online is no way representative of the entire country," the government said.

"An insurance company has an intrinsic interest in highlighting risk and economic pain in order to spur insurance sales," the statement added.

It went on to state that there is a potential conflict of interest in such surveys.