Pre-election surveys in Chhattisgarh may have given the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the lead in the state but Congress leaders there remain upbeat. Not on hope and optimism, to be sure, but because the party has beaten its rival in releasing its candidate list and party manifesto. The latter, in fact, caused a senior leader to quip that the BJP now had the opportunity to crib from the Congress manifesto. He was not wrong; both manifestos have several points in common.

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This refers to T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan's article "The case for banning opinion polls" (November 8). There are a few aspects of this issue that need to be considered. First, there are many things that can shape a voter's perception and the final decision to cast his/her vote in one candidate's favour. After all, voters are human beings and will interpret various inputs in their own individual ways. So why should we look askance at opinion polls? Secondly, it is not necessary that all undecided voters will definitely be influenced by the opinion polls and certainly not in one particular way. Can it be anybody's indisputable case that undecided voters prefer to cast their vote in favour of a candidate more likely to win? Is it not possible that some undecided voters could, by nature, be sympathetic to the "underdog" and cast their vote in favour of the "losing" candidate? Finally, if we are so worried about things that may influence voters, the very concept of elections will be open to q

Letters: Voting for the underdog

T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan's illuminating and refreshing argument in "The case for banning opinion polls" (November 8) comes in the wake of the shrill outcry against a ban on opinion polls by the so-called liberals and guardians of free speech. Is it not inevitable that in this digitally-driven world of limited attention span and intellectual rigour measured in characters and bytes, societal receptivity will be limited to just signals and not information or the big picture? Irrespective of whether opinion polls are banned or not, the fact of the matter is that mass media (the sponsors of such polls) does not have the time, inclination or space for poll data.The majority is not inclined towards data since that would require diligence and hence, information intermediaries would rather offer ready-to-serve interpretations based on signals and not complete information. An empirical experiment would suffice to prove the point. Count the number of hits on the link of the research paper, provid

Letters: Limited to signals

This refers to Kanika Datta's column "Natural-born biases" (SWOT, November 7). The issue of citizenship was first raised in Parliament and the "gossip" was enjoyed later by some idle mailers. The clarification provided by Raghuram Rajan should have ended the speculation. We are forgetting that such uninformed allegations will affect the prestige of Indians as a community. We have already harmed the reputation of various celebrities of Indian origin by first "identifying" them as Indians and then hounding them. World citizens like Dr Rajan may take it in their stride and take time to explain the real position. But this has an impact on Indians, be it the "NRIs" that hold high positions abroad, or a mason or tailor from Kerala or Bihar who has just landed in the UAE for employment.Now that the author has covered all the important dimensions of the issue, let us hope we will not divert Rajan's attention from his current assignment.M G Warrier  MumbaiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-maile

Letters: World citizens

As Chhattisgarh goes to polls in two phases, November 11 and 19, we look at the assets of the chief minister contesting from Rajnandgaon

Politician's asset check

As the technical education regulator, AICTE, and colleges trade charges on who is to blame as seats go abegging at engineering, business and medical schools, and graduates find themselves unemployable

Tech schools: How did they lose their mojo

Vishwanathan Anand's career shows chess works for India

India's perfect game

Atul Kasbekar

Best work moment Client I had shot for asked his agency to get the services of the legendary Richard Avedon. They got in touch with the Master,  who asked to see the previous work done by the brand. It was sent and Avedon replied that it was very good and couldn't see why they needed him. Cross my heart, true story. I can die in peace.Books on your bedsideRight now - Chanakya's Chants, various books by Sadhguru of Isha Yoga. Shooting Straight by Piers Morgan is arriving shortlyMassage or workout to de-stressWorkout almost every day, massage every Sunday. I have a blind masseur and he has magic in his fingers.Favorite accessoryMy EvoTec from Carl F Bucherer. Pocket squares and tie bars, loud socks. And a healthy dose of my dark humourDesigns that have caught your eye recentlyPrimarily evil ones...Your IT toolsThe iPad and Stella my EA, aka the iKnowItAllFavourite spiritThe 18-year-old Macallan single malt or any red grape served in the right spiritFavourite wineThe Chocolate Block - a r

God has a sense of humour: Atul Kasbekar

Telecom policy should encourage efficient use of spectrum

The forgotten objective

RBI opens up to wholly owned subsidiaries of foreign banks

The more the merrier

The department of heavy industry was fully prepared for the festive season - or, more specifically, the heavy-duty gifting that accompanies it. With the United Progressive Alliance riddled with corruption scandals, the department chose to plaster the corridors outside the offices of senior bureaucrats with posters bearing dire if ungrammatical messages. "Corruption is anti national, anti poor and road block to progress," said one. Among the others: "Corruption erodes the moral fabric of the society", "Let us join hands for a sustained campaign against corruption," "Let us sign the integrity pact, hold your head high and march ahead" and "Protect the innocent and punish the guilty". The department even strung a rope between the walls of the corridor leading to minister Praful Patel's office to display these messages, attracting considerable attention from visitors to Udyog Bhavan.

Udyog Bhavan's poster buoy

The existence of a National Capital Region presents a unique problem for political parties contesting Assembly elections from any of its three states - Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Most states declare election day a holiday, so that people get the opportunity to vote, and those in essential services are allowed to come late after they vote. But what about voters who live in states that are going to the polls but work in states that aren't? This is an issue many Delhi-resident workers in Gurgaon and Noida will face on December 4, a Wednesday, when the Delhi Assembly elections are due. This conundrum has disturbed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is making its energetic poll debut. It, therefore, plans to request the Election Commission to issue a directive to organisations in Gurgaon and Noida to allow employees living in Delhi to vote and then come to work. The question, of course, is whether a higher voter turnout will be AAP's gain.

A Wednesday conundrum

A global Taxi Survey by Hotels.com appears to endorse India's cliched label as the land of the Kama Sutra. Among its many findings, the 30-country survey showed that 30 per cent of Indians admitted to kissing in the back seat of a cab. To put that in perspective, the global average for this type of behaviour is 9 per cent. The British, however, outperform Indians when its comes to "displaying passionate behaviour" (apparently there is a distinction between this and kissing) in the back seat of a cab with 10 per cent of them admitting to this against a 4 per cent global average.

Taking a back seat

This refers to the editorial "Leaderless and lost" (November 6) that exhorts the ruling party to sell their achievements in the best interests of an informed electoral process. Such expectations appear to be misplaced. It is a fact that the Congress, drunk with power and overconfident of electoral success in ways more inappropriate than appropriate, has been insensitive to the needs of the general population. There are glaring indications of the public's discomfort touching intolerable levels due to price rise, corruption, mis-governance and what not. Rather than going for self-analysis and corrective measures, it has conveniently resorted to self-certification.Whenever a minister was caught doing something wrong, there have been at least a dozen other ministers and party functionaries howling in unison to justify the unjustifiable. Such ganging up for immoral reasons has robbed the system of whatever morality and credibility it had left. Sane advice is no longer the need of the hour.

Letters: Overconfident Congress

This refers to the Chinese Whispers item "Coffee, due North" (November 7) regarding HCL co-founder and chairman Shiv Nadar not getting the kind of Madras coffee he wanted. I think he did not specify his requirements precisely. In most coffee shops in the south as well as in the north, coffee is measured by yards! He should have, therefore, ordered in yards to avoid disappointment.Nirupam Haldar  KolkataLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Measuring his coffee

The editorial "An undesirable move" (November 5) rightly argued against the ban on pre-election opinion polls. The Congress didn't want a ban on pre-poll surveys when they predicted a victory for the party in state elections but has called for a ban on them now because most of them are predicting a setback for the party in the upcoming Assembly elections and also in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Opinion polls, by and large, give an idea of the public mood, and it is too much to assume that they decisively influence the voter's decision. Indian voters have shown their maturity and prudence in taking their own decisions, independent of the propaganda of political parties and opinion polls. The 2004 Lok Sabha election was an apt example. All opinion polls predicted a victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Voters were influenced neither by the NDA's "India Shining" campaign nor by the predictions of the polls. The NDA was defeated and the United Progressive Alliance led by the

Letters: Mature voters

Sector-wise allocations in 2013Real estate attracted most of the investments, accounting for 19.32% of the total in terms of deal value, with an aggregate of $1.89 billion (40 deals). Software & services was the second, with $1.32 billion (13.57%) across 160 deals  so far this yearTelecommunication services, utilities and retailing were the other top Industry Groups.

A Snapshot of pe activity & deals

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:  Do you think there should be a single entrance test for B-schools just like JEE Mains and Advance?

Student's corner

Don't blame trade openness for failure to grow manufacturing

A 1970s argument

Bt brinjal in Bangladesh calls for a policy review by India

The row over GM crops

Pre-poll surveys conducted by media houses in Chhattisgarh gave the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a clear edge with some reports predicting that the party would win no less than 60 Assembly seats out of 90. But no one in the BJP headquarters is ready to celebrate. That's because their experience with pre-poll surveys has been distinctly poor. As one local leader pointed out, the same channels conducted surveys in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and gave the party a clear majority in both states. But the party lost both. Now, leaders are trying to convince the cadres to work hard for their party candidates rather than wallow in complacency.

Business Standard

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Still first!

Letters: Voting for the underdog

Letters: Limited to signals

Letters: World citizens

Politician's asset check

Tech schools: How did they lose their mojo

India's perfect game

God has a sense of humour: Atul Kasbekar

The forgotten objective

The more the merrier

Udyog Bhavan's poster buoy

A Wednesday conundrum

Taking a back seat

Letters: Overconfident Congress

Letters: Measuring his coffee

Letters: Mature voters

A Snapshot of PE activity & deals

Student's corner

A 1970s argument

The row over GM crops