We The Indians … Glamour Chasers!

YouGov.uk has recently released their survey result for world’s most admired individual 2018. The most admired man turned out to be Mr. Bill Gates, while Ms. Angelina Jolie came out as the most admired woman. Both are well revered for their philanthropic efforts, no one would dare question Gates’ contribution to proliferation of the personal computers. Bill and Melinda Gates’ foundation is also doing a lot for the underprivileged children and medical research among other. Barak and Michelle Obamas were both placed in second position in their respective categories.

It’s understandable that the selection is heavily reliant on computer literacy and internet accessibility among the voting population. When it comes to the internet users in terms of pure numbers, India is in the same league with the USA and China. This is quite obvious from the names that popped up in the first twenty for both genders.

Even after discounting the much maligned AI and manipulative analytics, it’s hard to make sense of the toppers from India. The top admired Indian man is PM Modi at number 8 and closely followed by Mr. Bachchan at number 9. The women we admire are Ms. Aishwarya Rai at number 11, Ms. Priyanka Chopra at number 12 and followed by Ms. Deepika Padukone at number 13.

Leaving aside the Prime Minister, I fail to see the social outreach of the others. How do they, whom we apparently admire inspire the children, the youth, the grown up or the society at large.