New Delhi, May 20 : While people in some states exude enthusiastic optimism about their future financial prospects, people in some other states are deeply pessimistic when it comes to the future financial prospects of their families, as per an IANS-CVoter survey. This was revealed during an exclusive survey conducted by CVoter on behalf of IANS in the four states -- Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala -- and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where Assembly elections were held in 2021. A series of questions were asked to gauge public mood and opinion on a range of social, political and economic challenges confronting the country. The widely-differing opinions on future prospects were quite surprising as the respondents expressed the same opinion on most other topics and issues. People in West Bengal appeared to be the most pessimistic about their future. When asked about their future living standard in the next one year, 58 per cent of the respondents said that it will deteriorate, while 21 per cent said that it will improve. Another 11 per cent said it will remain the same. People in neighbouring Assam were much more optimistic. While 38 per cent of the respondents said their living standard will improve in the next one year, about 29 per cent were of the opinion that it will deteriorate. Interestingly, a significant 25 per cent of the respondents in Assam said they had no opinion on the issue. Kerala seemed evenly split between the optimists and pessimists. While 33 per cent of the respondents felt their living standard will deteriorate in the next one year, about 31 per cent reckoned that it will improve. People in Tamil Nadu were unusually optimistic with about 45 per cent of the respondents saying their living standard will improve in the next one year. In sharp contrast, just 13 per cent of the respondents said their living standard will deteriorate. A majority of Indian families are feeling the pinch of rising expenses on inflation and seem convinced that growing expenses in the last one year were becoming difficult to manage, as per the IANS-CVoter survey. In Tamil Nadu, almost two-third of the respondents said that they were finding it difficult to manage the rising expenses. Another 22 per cent said that while expenses had indeed gone up, they were just about able to manage. In neighbouring Kerala, about 62 per cent of the respondents stated that they were finding it difficult to manage rising expenses, while another 25 per cent were of the opinion that while expenses had gone up, they were still manageable. The situation seems equally dire in other states too. In Assam, two out of three respondents stated that they were finding it very difficult to manage rising expenses while another 18 per cent claimed that while expenses had gone up, they were just about able to manage. West Bengal seems to be the most adversely affected of the states. As many as 74 per cent of the respondents claimed that they were finding it very difficult to manage growing expenses. Another 16 per cent stated they found expenses rising but were able to manage. /IANS