Military most trusted in India; govt officials, parties take back seats

In India, the army enjoys the highest level of “effective trust”, followed by the supreme court (SC) and the high courts (HC), according to a 2018 study. Political parties were at the bottom in a list of 16 elected and non-elected institutions and offices.

The study, covering eight states by Azim Premji University (APU) and Lokniti (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies [CSDS]), defines effective trust as the difference between percentage of respondents who opted for a “great deal of trust” at one end of the scale and “no trust at all” at the other.

The study, accessed by IndiaSpend, was conducted in 22 assembly constituencies with 16,680 respondents. Nearly 77% respondents showed the most trust in the military, followed by 54.8% in the SC and 48% in the HCs.