1. 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

2. 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.
Global Role Models of Indian Youth
(Courtesy: Hindustan Times)
Not so surprisingly, 28 percent respondents in the survey consider the great orator and the
President of the United States Barack Obama as their role model. Breaking the common notion of
West Bengal’s blind hatred for the capitalist America, the U.S. President found favour with 43.4
percent of youth from Kolkata who look up to him as their role model followed by 39.6 percent
from Indore and 38.5 from Hyderabad and Guwahati. Microsoft’s Founder Bill Gates came second
in global role model list with 16.4 percent youngsters voting for him. Interestingly it’s the

3. technology capital of India, Bangalore that topped in the choice of Bill Gates with 34.5 percent
youngsters from the city considering him as a role model for them, followed by Chennai at 28.3
percent. Indian business tycoon in UK, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal came third with 13.6 percent voting
for him, chosen mainly by Patna yourth (54.5 percent) followed by 39.2 percent of Chandigarh.
Tibetan religious figure Dalai Lama, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Argentine footballer Lionel
Messi, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and
legendary investor Warren Buffett were also voted as role models for many in India. However, 7.2
percent of the respondents said they can’t say who their global role model is and 5.6 percent don’t
feel any one of the above can be their role model.
Sexiest Man and Woman Alive
(Courtesy: Hindustan Times)
The back to back hits have raised the graph of Salman Khan who 28.1 percent of Indian youth
consider the sexiest man alive in India. Salman Khan was chosen by 79 percent from Patna, 44.7
percent in Chandigarh and 39 percent in Ahmedabad. Beating other Bollywood heartthrobs, the
youngest Gandhi from the Nehru political dynasty, Rahul Gandhi was ranked second in the list of
sexiest men alive in India scoring 14.9 percent of votes, which is an increase of 5.3 percent from
9.6 percent in the previous year. The public face of the congress party was chosen by 52.9 percent
of Hyderabad's youth, 34.6 percent in Bhopal and 25.6 in Cahndigarh. Hrithik Roshan came third

4. in the list with 14.7 percent who in fact lost big in popularity as 19.7 percent had considered him
sexiest the last year. John Abraham came fourth with 12.1 percent. Justin Beiber, David Beckham,
Justin Timberlake, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Robert Pattinson and Ashton Kutcher were the once
ranked sexiest globally by Indian youth.
Katrina Kaif was ranked the sexiest women with 33.6 percent of youth in India voting for her and
Angelina Jolie came second with 15.3 percent. Bipasha Basu and Jennifer Lopez came third and
fourth with 13.9 percent and 7.7 percent respectively. The highest number of votes for Katrina
came from Chandigarh with 73.9 percent, then Patna 67 percent and Lucknow 64.5 percent.