Trust gap between biz, govt continues to grow: Survey

The gap between people's faith in business and the government continues to widen and is marked by 24 percentage point difference in favour of the corporate sector, shows the latest survey by Edelman Trust Barometer.

Trust in business in India has recorded a significant increase from 69% in 2012, to 81% currently. In contrast, trust in the government has witnessed only a marginal increase from 53% in 2012 to 57% among informed public.

"The 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer clearly indicates that the India results are the most nuanced amongst all emerging economies. There is an inherent optimism amongst the Indian public and, with the high trust levels; a clear opportunity is indicated for businesses," Edelman Asia Pacific President and CEO David Brain said.

Another indication of the difference in trust between business and government comes from the fact that only 17% of the general public respondents in India do not trust business leaders to tell the truth, whereas 39% do not trust government leaders to tell the truth, regardless of how complex or unpopular the issue is.

"While business today enjoys greater trust than the others, the lower trust in business leaders reflects that the public expects more from them," Brain said.

The survey, which was conducted among 31,000 respondents in 26 countries, further noted the global firms headquartered in the US, Japan and UK are the most trusted among the "informed public" in India, which is defined as college- educated individuals between ages 25-64.

Amongst businesses, technology (90%), energy (86%), automotive (88%) and banks (84%) are the most trusted sectors, while the brewing and spirits industry continues to be the least trusted sector.

Amongst media, online search engines emerge as highly trusted sources at 85%, while trust in traditional media like newspapers, radio and magazines continues to be high at 81%.

"Recent activism on a variety of causes of social importance on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, also leads to steady trust levels in these tools as news sources at 73%," the report said.

Trust levels among NGOs and civil society did not see any significant change, with 69% people trusting them.