SBI emerges as India's most patriotic brand, Paytm tops internet sector: Survey

The online survey was conducted between August 2 and 8 and it covered over 150 brands in 11 product categories. 

Ahead of the 72nd Independence Day, YouGov (a UK-headquartered market research and data analytics firm) has released a ranking of India’s most patriotic brands.

Topping the list is the State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, which was voted by 16 percent of the respondents. It is followed by Tata Motors and Patanjali (eight percent each), telcos Reliance Jio and BSNL (six percent each), and LIC and Amul (five percent each), YouGov said.

Interestingly, Paytm is the only consumer internet firm in the top few. About three percent of the respondents found it to be the most patriotic brand. Patanjali, too, grabbed a three-percent vote-share. Bajaj, Samsung and Vicco scored two percent each.

The YouGov survey was conducted between August 2 and 8 among 1,193 respondents in India. It covered 152 brands across 11 categories including consumer goods, food and beverages, auto, telecom and financial services.

Financial sector players emerged as the most trusted brands overall. SBI topped with 47 percent of the sector-share, followed by LIC at 16 percent.

In automotive, Tata Motors was the most patriotic brand capturing 30 percent of the votes. Bharat Petroleum and Maruti Suzuki followed with 13 percent and 11 percent respectively.

In food, Amul was the leading brand with over 33 percent calling it patriotic. Tata Tea topped in the beverages category, capturing 35 percent of the votes. It was succeeded by Taj Mahal at 18 percent.

The ecommerce sector saw Paytm surging ahead of Flipkart and Amazon. One in three (33 percent) Indians called Paytm patriotic, while Flipkart and Amazon recorded 22 percent and 16 percent of the category-votes respectively. 

Nirma emerged as the most popular brand in the homecare products category, while Patanjali dominated the personal care space ahead of veteran brands like Dabur and Vicco.

Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was voted as the most global Indian. Over 42 percent of the respondents voted for him. Priyanka Chopra ranked second on the list of global Indians following two years of phenomenal success in Hollywood. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and corporate billionaires Lakshmi Mittal and Satya Nadella were the others in the top five.

A majority (62 percent) of the respondents called themselves patriotic Indians. About a third reckoned they were “somewhat” patriotic, six percent weren’t sure, and two percent said they were “not” patriotic, the survey stated.