Meet the Role Models of Indian Youth

Bangalore: Unpredictability marks the youth and that’s what the HT- MaRS Youth Survey 2012 has to say – Indian youth are highly unpredictable and their likes and dislikes change the English weather or the next status message on Facebook. The vast reservoir of India’s youth population’s tastes ranges from Kalam's intellect to the charming King Khan and to the cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, a replica of contemporary India’s well known contradictions and chaos. Covering 15 cities, the team surveyed thousands of youngsters between the age of 18-21(35470) and between 21-25 years (3474) of which 3506 were males and 3515 females. The sample survey consisted of 3792 full-time students, 1575 part-time employed students and 1654 employed youths.

The Best Role Models

(Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

Neither the recent slapgate dent SRK’s popularity, nor the row over Kudankulam N-plant did hurt Kalam’s image, and obviously not Team India’s poor show in Australia or the endless wait for his hundredth hundred affected Sachin’s fame in the country and they are the top three personalities the Indian youth look up as their best role models. While 15.4 percent voted Shah Rukh Khan as their best role model, APJ Abdul Kalam came second in popularity among the youth with 14.8 percent and Sachin was liked by 11.3 percent in the country. 67 percent chose Shah Rukh  as their role model followed by 26.6 percent from Kolkata. The Badshah of Bollywood registered 5.8 percent in popularity from the previous year. Anna Hazare came fourth with 9.4 percent and Rahul Gandhi in the fifth position with 8 percent of youth’s favorite. Kalam was chosen by 47 percent in Cochin, 22 percent in Bangalor and 31 percent in Jaipur. Sachin is the best icon for 18.3 percent in Calcutta, 16.7 percent in his home town Mumbai and 16.5 in Delhi. Sonia Gandhi, Amitabh Bachchan, Ms Dhoni, Narayan Murthy, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Kiren Bedi, Amartya Sen, Pt. Ravi Shankar and Chandra Kochar were the other eminent personalities in country that the youth consider are the role models. 2.6 percent of surveyed youth said they can’t say who their role model is and 1.2 percent did not consider any of the above as their role models.