New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS): The average Indian citizen and voter seems to be in two minds when it comes to foreign investments. She seems to welcome it as a positive for India but remains quite wary of foreign investors at the same time, according to the IANS-CVoter Consumer Tracker.

This ambivalence was revealed during a nationwide survey conducted by CVoter during the third week of October, 2021. The only area where there was no doubt was the overwhelming mistrust of China and Chinese investments in the country.

Only 10.3 per cent of the respondents wanted foreign investments to be allowed free entry under a free market route. Close to 56 per cent of respondents wanted India to be protectionist and impose restrictions and controls on foreign investments while 31.2 per cent wanted India to partially allow foreign investments with strict regulations and rules.

The survey pointed out that India had become one of the largest recipients of foreign investment in the world. Close to 72 per cent of Indians found this to be a positive development while 11.4 per cent found the development negative ND 16 per cent found it to be a little bit of both. Close to 80 per cent also thought that the Narendra Modi government was successful in attracting foreign investment. But in the same breath, a majority of respondents wanted India to adopt a protectionist policy while dealing with foreign investments.

Respondents were asked if multinational companies helped create employment opportunities and create better working conditions for workers. Surprisingly 43 per cent of the respondents agreed with this while close to 52 per cent were of the firm opinion that multinationals exploited their workers.

The tracker showed that a majority of Indians welcome foreign investment in India. But at the same time, they feel that dominance of foreign investors in certain key sectors is dangerous for the country.

However, 48.6 per cent of Indians also find foreign investors' dominance to be extremely dangerous in the entertainment sector including movies, OTT platforms and TV channels.

While more than 47 per cent of Indians found foreign investors' dominance to be extremely dangerous in the telecom, mobile and Internet sector, just about 32 per cent found it to be the same in the consumer durables sector. Even in the agriculture sector, 45.5 per cent of Indians found foreign investors' dominance to be extremely dangerous. The conclusion is clear. Indians do welcome foreign investments. But they do not want them to completely dominate the Indian market at the cost of Indian entrepreneurs.

An overwhelming majority of Indians nurture strong anti China sentiments as discovered by a recent CVoter survey conducted across the country. One question asked was if they trust Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Indian companies. More than 90 per cent Indians said they did not, while just about 9 per cent expressed trust in Chinese FDI. In contrast, when a similar question was asked about American FDI, just 40 per cent of respondents said no, while close to 57 per cent expressed trust.

One more question related to China was if the 'ban' on Chinese FDI would hurt India's interests. Close to 66 per cent said that Indian interests will not be affected while 32 per cent said there could be a diverse impact.

An overwhelming majority of Indians seem to support the founder of the Zee Network Subhash Chandra and his son Puneet Goenka in their existential battle with a foreign investment firm Invesco, which wants to oust Puneet Goenka and the lead management team and form a new gem to run the Zee Network. In a nationwide survey conducted by CVoter to gauge the sentiments of ordinary Indians, Respondents were asked if they support the demand by Invesco to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting as soon as possible to enable them vote to oust Goenka as the managing director. Close to 85 per cent of the respondents said they oppose the move by Invesco while close to 12 per cent of them supported the move.