Religious conflict among most pressing issues in India: Survey

For millennials in India, religious conflict is the most pressing problems affecting the country after corruption and poverty, shows a new survey.

According to WEF's Global Shapers Annual Survey 2016, around 49.6 per cent of respondents in India believe government accountability & transparency/corruption is a serious issues affecting the country.

While 39.7 per cent of Indian respondents believe the most pressing problem is poverty, 32.7 per cent believe it is religious conflict and 31.1 per cent says it is lack of education.

The global survey offers insights into the thinking, priorities and concerns of young people around the world. It covered more than 26,000 participants in 181 countries.

At the global level, for the second year in a row, millennials see climate change as the most serious issue affecting the world, followed by large-scale conflicts, religious conflicts and poverty.

When asked who could successfully tackle these challenges in their countries on the global level, millennials trust themselves most with solving local challenges (26 per cent), followed by governments (20 per cent) and civil society (17 per cent).

For global challenges, young people trust international organisations (26 per cent) and, again, themselves (20 per cent).

The survey further noted that millennials are optimistic about technology, and 86 per cent of respondents globally believe that technology, while destroying some jobs, will eventually be a driver of job growth.

When asked about which sector would benefit the most from adoption of latest technologies 24.7 per cent respondents in India said it is agriculture, followed by government (17.3 per cent) and education (16 per cent).

Meanwhile, governments across the world don't get high approval ratings from young people when it comes to the adoption of new technologies, with 41 per cent criticising them as too slow.

The biggest contribution from the private sector is job creation (36 per cent) and economic development/foreign investment, with 20 per cent of respondents choosing that option.

When it comes to their own careers, millennials are looking for jobs that provide a fair salary (54 per cent), a growth perspective (45 per cent) and a sense of purpose (36 per cent).

About 74 per cent are confident, or extremely confident, that they bring the right skills to the job market. There is less optimism for career prospects, with only 54 per cent optimistic or very optimistic about their job prospects, the survey added.