Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the world’s most popular leader in a survey conducted by a leading US-based business intelligence company.

According to ‘Morning Consult’, Modi has an approval rating of 78 per cent while Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is second with an approval rating of 68 per cent in a list of 22 global leaders.

The consulting firm said the latest approval ratings were based on data collected from 26-31 January. The ratings are based on a seven-day moving average of adult residents in each country with sample sizes varying by country.

Nearly 18 per cent of the respondents disapproved of Modi while four per cent had no opinion. Modi’s approval rating has apparently received a shot in the arm after India did some tightrope walk in the wake of the Ukraine conflict in February last year. His advice to Russian President Vladimir Putin that ”this is not an era of war” in a meeting with the latter on the sidelines of the SCO Summit last September found an echo in the communique issued by G20 countries at the end of their summit in Bali in November.

The third world leader in the ranking was Swiss President Alain Berset with a rating of 62 per cent while the fourth spot went to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was fourth with 58 per cent rating.

Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was fifth in the list while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was sixth.

US President Joe Biden was at the seventh spot with a popularity rating of 40 per cent. Some 52 per cent of the respondents disapproved of him while eight per cent had no opinion.

The US President was followed by Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland,  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Chancellor Karl Nehammer of Austria, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Petr Fiala of Czech Republic, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway.