KOHLI, THE BEST ROLE MODEL ALIVE
BIG PICTURE India’s young voted Virat Kohli as biggest role model alive while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chosen the best political icon
India’s young voted cricketer Virat Kohli as the biggest role model alive while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chosen as the best political icon.
T he latest Youth Survey by HT and MaRS is a big win for India’s Test cricket captain Virat Kohli, who emerged the biggest sports icon in the world with 42.8% of the overall votes. He is way ahead of second-placed Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was favoured by only 9.7% of the voters, and Roger Federer, who finished third with 8.5% votes.
However, in an even bigger win, Kohli was favoured by the largest percentage of voters – 26.4% — as the best living role model for young people all over the world. That put him ahead of outgoing United States president Barack Obama, who received 24% votes, and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who was chosen by 18.7% of the voters.
Modi, though, is the biggest icon in Indian politics, with nearly half the voters favouring him. That puts him way ahead of second-placed Arvind Kejriwal, who received 14% of the votes, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who got 8%. Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice-president, was favoured by only 2.7% voters. Actor Ranbir Kapoor may not have had the best time at the box office of late until Ae Dil Hai Mushkil became a hit. However, in this survey, he emerged the runaway winner of the sexiest-man-alive poll, with 31.4% of the respondents rooting for him. The sexiest-woman-alive crown goes to actress Deepika Padukone with 29.1% of the overall votes, but it is a close call between her and Katrina Kaif when you look at the breakup of male and female votes.
Corruption, the country’s old bug bear, is still seen as the biggest challenge facing the country — 34.2% of the respondents chose it. Terrorism was seen as the second biggest, getting 23.6% votes. But more voters — 36.9% — chose terrorism as the biggest challenge facing the world, with corruption getting only 8.1% of the votes.