The gem and jewellery industry is already an economic powerhouse, one with multiple possible avenues for further growth. A focused administrative centre within the government can help it realise much of this latent potential, writes Stephen Rego Some time in the near future, will the Indian cabinet have a portfolio handled by a ‘Minister for Gems & Jewellery’? The creation of such a position is one of the important recommendations of a recent report, entitled ‘Gems & Jewellery Industry: Contributing to Make in India’ released by industry body Assocham, and based on a study carried out for it by Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI). While most initial reactions may be to dismiss away this suggestion, a deeper analysis indicates that it merits serious consideration. Stephen RegoConsider a few facts that the report has culled from different studies and sources. The gems and jewellery industry in India today was estimated to have had a market size of Rs 463,000 crore during 2012-13. Of this, the segment catering to domestic consumption accounted for approximately Rs 251,000 crore while the export sector had a turnover of Rs 212,800 crore. This worked out to about 6-7 per cent of the country’s GDP. Further, in 2012-13, the export sector was the second highest contributor to the country’s commodity exports with a share of 13 per cent, after petroleum products (20 per cent).Currently, it ranks sixth among all the manufacturing industries in the country in terms of employment, providing jobs to an estimated 46.4 lakh people. Moreover, it is one of the few manufacturing industries where India is the dominant global player, and has been so for well near two decades. Of the total worldwide production of cut and polished diamonds, India manufactures about 65-70 per cent by value and almost 90 per cent in terms of actual number of pieces. The Assocham report projects that all these numbers can grow significantly provided a proper enabling environment is created. The structure of the gems and jewellery business belies the important economic role it plays in India. It is huge, yet largely unorganised and highly fragmented. Jewellers are present in almost every town in the country, and most medium to large villages also have goldsmiths. At present, there is no definite figure of the number of jewellers across the country, though it would clearly be well over a lakh. Many of them have been around for over a hundred years, and are currently run by the fourth or fifth generation, yet they by and large, fall within the vast unorganised sector. The organised sector is relatively new – the first brand, Gili was launched only in 1994 – but it is highly visible and growing at a healthy rate. The Assocham study estimates that the organised jewellers account for 15-20 per cent of the overall business today; others estimate slightly lower numbers. Even the organised sector is not a homogenous entity; it can be sub-divided by markets -- export and domestic; by position in the pipeline – manufacturing and retailing (and there are many players involved in both); by product category – diamonds, jewellery, coloured gemstones. In turn each of these have further segments. For example, jewellery can be plain gold, diamond studded, silver, coloured gemstone studded, machine-made, handmade etc. The adoption of modern technology, management and marketing practices is what distinguishes the organised sector from the rest. Each of these segments has one or more associations to voice its concerns and interact with the authorities. Grasping the finer points of this industry and drawing up appropriate mechanisms and measures is clearly no easy task. Moreover, because of its unique history and the high value of goods produced, the industry has traditionally been fairly closed and opaque in its functioning. The organised sector however has broken new ground. Exporters are audited by suppliers of raw materials like De Beers or Rio Tinto, and even by the large chain stores and businesses like Walmart, Signet and others that markets their products in the overseas markets. It is time to build on this and ensure that the pace of change gathers momentum. As the Assocham study puts it, the gems and jewellery sector “deserves the same interest and consideration as other manufacturing sectors such as food processing, textiles, pharmaceuticals etc.” As a first step in that direction, a dedicated government structure could be set up that understands the various nuances of the business and gives attention to developing appropriate policies and administrative mechanisms. The industry needs a framework for growth, and support in establishing and strengthening the infrastructure for its implementation. A focused administration could go a long way in providing the boost for a new phase of growth.(Stephen Rego has been a journalist since the mid-1980s, and has spent close to two decades tracking the gem and jewellery industry while holding different editorial positions in industry specific publications and websites)
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Almost in every mid to large cap organization, a CEO is supposed to be the key figure; a pivot around whom is created where organization departments are plotted across the X-axis and the Y-axis is left on the CEO itself for his choice of metric which could be profitability, productiveness, effectiveness etc. as long as the metrics have cross comparability across the corporate functions.When metrics for any organization purpose get adjudicated, a CEO's dependency relies solely on the Finance function and this dependency is seen as widely across all strata's of organization sizes in terms of revenue or even across borders in all markets of the world. To help this dependency on the Finance function it is imperative for the CEO to have someone trust-worthy to helm this important role.In comes the CFO who is always observed to share a love-hate relationship with all his peers while trying to maintain a pragmatic approach on the business for the CEO to make the best informed and advocated decision possible.In my opinion where an organization wants to undertake progressive planning for high ticket position like the CEO, two options exist: to procure externally or prepare and train someone internally and most organizations globally choose the latter, for the simple reason; 'A known devil is better than an unknown friend'. In such a scenario it is but natural that an organizational CXO would be handed over the coveted position and it has been observed that six out of ten times, the CFO would be chosen to step into the shoes. There are three obvious reasons for such a high probabilities wiz:1. Being a numbers man him/her self, a CFO could easily make more sense out of business metrics and the language they speak.2. Being used to taking decisions catered to increased value of the organization both intrinsic and extrinsic in nature.3. Overall bird's eye awareness, if not in detail; of other department functioning's in the organization.However this transitioning is not an easy one and requires lengthy and regular sessions of interactions between the CEO and CFO. Hence it is widely said that 'A CEO makes a CEO'. This aspect of the CEO's role to successfully carve out his shadow from his/her CFO makes the CEO more of an execution mentor than just a reporting boss.In my professional opinion, a few specific areas which a CEO should not miss while mentoring a CFO are:1. Numbers are 'Not' the only thing that matterA CFO is generally coming with an educational background of a CA/MBA (Finance)/CFA, where the life's learning and practice has traditionally always been to look into details and that numbers never lie. This however is one factor which can hold back a CFO too, if not molded to see beyond the numbers into the reason behind them rather than just base facts. In short have the CFO needs to have empathy towards the causes behind the numbers as in long term the empathy could take the business many more places than it is currently. 2. Strategically to think out of the box and yet practically staying in the boxA CEO is ideally supposed to be blessed with the skill of foresight, as being a visionary goes hand in hand with being a CEO of an organization. This is trait which does not develop without practice and needs to be put into at good levels by a CFO; however one should never take a flight without realizing on how hard a ground they are standing. 3. Develop a deeper understanding of functioning of all organization departmentsA CFO could really benefit by deeper knowledge of functioning of all departments within an organization, as this would then supplement his/her experience to find out real reasons for their over/under performance and take measured calls rather than just facts put forward by an excel report.4. It is not possible to make all happy at all timesThough this seems a very obvious life philosophy, a CEO should definitely depict this in practice to the CFO. Being a CEO is not easy and it is this foremost reason. All stakeholders within the organization feel that the CEO holds the key to their happiness and success and this painfully is not practically possible. A simple "NO" is sometime a very hard option which needs to be taken for business interests.5. All that matters in the end are decisions that make the business succeed.If a CEO's professional existence were spread on a canvas, one would see a sincere practice of this point. Business is always of primal importance and nothing comes before it. Decision making keeping all macro, micro and ethical factors in mind; have to be in overall organization interests in the long run even though they may not seem financially feasible and/or profitable in the short term. The author, Shravan R. Doshi, is AVP - MyCFO
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"Can you order crayons for me?" asked my 6 year old son, pushing my phone to me. The simple request reminded me of the technological changes that are redrawing customer experience in the past couple of years.Rapid connectivity and fast-paced mobile penetration have impacted almost all facets of our everyday life. According to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) data, in April 2015, there were 869.93 active wireless and 100.76 broadband subscribers (85.23M - Wireless, 15.52M - Wired) in India, with the wireless broadband user base growing at an impressive 1.86% per month. The direct impact of this ubiquitous connectivity is universalization of data and social connections. Information is readily available, mostly free (Wikipedia has 4.9M articles in English) and social media has become inseparable from life for most of the urban world. (Facebook recently reported 1B worldwide logins a day).This phenomenal evolution of Internet and mobile ecosystem has transformed the way customers of today interact with service providers and customers' expectations are always on the mount. Customers are more informed, more empowered, more connected and their voices can be heard like never before. A good product or service is "as expected" but the slightest of disappointments can be beamed to the whole world, in minutes. Hence, along with distinguished products and services, superlative customer experience is fast becoming the prime differentiating factor in customer loyalty.In order to strengthen customer loyalty, companies need to relentlessly focus on the following critical areas:1) Design a digital strategy with focus on Mobile First Experience: Customers of today want to interact with companies whenever they want and through their channel of choice. With mobile devices fast becoming the default choice of customers, it is imperative for companies to design the experience for a 5 inch screen first and provide a 24/7 capability to interact though digital channels.2) Provide Simple, Smart and Connected Experience:a. Simple - Attention span of an average customer is rapidly diminishing and anything that does not reduce the cognitive load for the customer is almost certain to be rejected. Hence the age-old rule "Keep it simple " - be it interaction with the call center agents or the digital channels, every touch point needs to ensure minimal customer effortb. Smart - A customer interacts with a company, predominantly because there is a reason: service not working, error in billing, upgrade etc. In most cases, it should not be too difficult for companies to proactively identify the probable "Next Best Action" to help address the customer concern.c. Connected - Integrating interactions across different channels should be the responsibility of the company and not of the customer's. Information once provided, through any channel, should be used to provide connectivity in experience3) Enable frontline employees: While it is extremely critical to empower frontline employees to have an emotional connection with the customers, with a focus on empathy, it is equally important to equip frontline employees with the right data to ensure for the customers consistency and completeness of their experience.4) Always, always listen to the customer, whether they express themselves directly through feedback mechanisms or indirectly through social media, whether they are explicit or implicit. It is suicidal for any company to ignore these hints and not act on them.When companies face their moment of truth- retain the customer, providing a great experience or stare at obsolescence, IT can play a pivotal role in defining the experience landscape in the following areas:1) Data Analytics: Companies have almost unlimited data about customers - interaction data, profile data, behavior data, social data. The trick is to make sense of the data and use it as a competitive weapon to increase loyalty. Mapping the journey of the customers with the company, integrated with demographic information provides the capability to anticipate the potential "Next Best Action" or "Next Best Offer".2) Agility in Operation: Customer behavior is sometimes driven by the larger industry and technology backdrop which is changing at a fast pace. In order to quickly realign to changing expectations, it is almost mandatory to adopt agile mode of operation driven by the DevOps culture.3) Backend Plumbing: A prerequisite for user-friendly design and data-driven, connected experience is a streamlined backend plumbing - business processes, software and hardware stack as well as datacenters come together to facilitate the experience transformation.While the new world of ever-increasing customer expectations poses a significant challenge for organizations, it also throws a big opportunity to increase customer loyalty by delighting them with an experience that is "all about them" and technology-intensive.More and more, we are seeing examples of how IT is playing a major role in defining user interface, providing connected customer experiences by leveraging data analytics and embracing next generation software development methodologies.The author, Vishal Bhasin, is senior delivery head at Verizon
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It was with her heart in her mouth that Mala Bhargava allowed herself to be in a car that parked itself without the help of the driver, but more than that – no. What about you?About ten years ago, I had an awful nightmare which I’ve never quite forgotten. It’s among the handful of bad dreams that never quite go away...I was holidaying with family in some unidentified place and we were staying at a smallish hotel. We decided to go sightseeing and hopped on to the tourist bus standing outside the gates. The bus filled up, and soon we set off. I had quickly settled into a window seat and was soon lost gazing out, taking in the feel of the city as we zipped past. All of a sudden, I turned away from the window and looked around me inside the bus. There was no one there. I was quite absolutely alone. I was the one person sitting in that bus as it sped on to god knows where without a driver... Mala BhargavaNeedless to say I woke up deeply shaken, heart pounding. To this day, I never fully look out of a bus window but keep one eye watchfully tuned in to what’s going on inside. And needless to say I probably wouldn’t step into a driverless bus. But that’s not what they think over in Switzerland and quite a few other places. In Switzerland, a two-year trial of driverless buses making their way through real-life traffic is set to start in just a few months. Local Swiss newspapers report that this use of autonomous vehicles for public transport will start in 2016 and a startup will look after its operations. The buses will carry nine passengers each and go out into open traffic. It’s believed that the introduction of carefully controlled buses will help pave the way for autonomous cars by testing out what it will be like to have such vehicles in regular everyday traffic. San Ramon, California, is also soon to have the driverless EZ10 electric bus, from the company Easy Mile shuttling passengers from one location to a business park. This is where autonomous vehicles will first start out in America. It's an easier and safer way to see what a driverless future could be like. The route is short and predefined so it should be safe enough. In Trikala, Greece, a bunch of driverless buses have moving about the streets for a while now but without passengers. But now that is changing. A small group of passengers can ride free on these buses which are small and move at a nice and slow speed of 12 miles an hour. If something’s in the way, the bus waits. Recent news of a Google car that was stopped by a policeman for driving too slow amused the world a fair bit. Eventually, it turned out the car neither did any harm nor was breaking any laws, so it was let off without a fine. By 2020 Japan wants to have driverless taxis ready for the Tokyo summer Olympics. These will be manned by robots. In fact, retro cars will be fitted with the necessary technology. There are many driverless car projects on in the world today. Google, as we know well, really took to the roads with this, but other companies are also jumping into this area. It looks like the vehicles and technology will both be ready well ahead of sorting out all the laws and rules and precautions needed before letting these into the wild. In case of an accident, for example, who’s liable? Who’s safety should the vehicle prioritise? Its passengers’, or pedestrians’? In India, few people can see driverless driving being successful. Of all the wild roads and traffic in the world, some of India’s big cities probably have the very worst. Traffic situations are also far too unpredictable to program. Potholes can appear in the blink of an eyelid, vehicle breakdowns can change the entire traffic scenario at a location, lights stop working at will, and of course let’s not get to the fact that no one follows any rules. This is quite apart from the fact that there are just more people on the roads than the roads were ever designed to handle. The resulting chaos would be difficult to present to a poor driverless vehicle. It was with my heart in my mouth that I allowed myself to be in a car that parked itself without the help of the driver, but more than that – no.
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Sandeep BamzaiAs the Sangh and its affiliates continue to push their toxic religious and cultural agenda, irrespective of the domestic and international audiences' deep sense of revulsion, it is clear as daylight that there are two Indias. One completely dystopian, an imaginary society extremely unpleasant which is busy pushing this toxic envelope and the other which is standoffish, in stark contrast, repugnant of the conduct of what one hopes and reckons is a smaller section comprising the lunatic fringe. This cleave is growing and one needs to understand that majoritarianism is not with the fringe, though it is angry at the years of pandering to minorities. Today the attack is against snapdeal for selling leather shoes, tomorrow and day after, it may be for something as ridiculous. Yesterday it was Tipu Jayanti. And this will carry on despite alarm and a sense of trepidation that greets each lunatic strike. In all this somewhere, we are forgetting that the winter session of parliament will be upon us shortly. Sandeep BamzaiChristopher Hitchens writing in Hitch-22: A Memoir says, “I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me.” There is a lesson in that for what is happening with what we perceive to be the fringe across the world. Equally it is said that the road to arrogance is paved with the love of self. It is imperative for the BJP to start communicating with opposition parties which have bush whacked them in the last 18 months not allowing any crucial legislation to pass through. After Bihar the dynamics of Indian polity have altered, the new centrifuge is a revivalist opposition and more than that a combined opposition which has seen that if various constituents regroup, they can prove to be more than a handful for a belligerent party in power. The old secular versus communal debate is also back thanks to the intolerant fringe. Now, nature nature abhors a vacuum, so it is clear that someone will try and occupy the space vacated. Expect a bellicose opposition, united as a cohesive whole which will tear down everything thrown at it by the treasury benches. The Congress has already begun with a clamour that the issuance of FDI norms was illegal since it was not cleared by the Cabinet. Now this a facetious argument, for if the PM finally, at long last, decided to use the executive authority available at his disposal under the Transaction of Business Rules, then so be it, Indian is capital starved and FDI is critical to alleviate our woes. This is something that everyone in India needs to understand, now if one opposes this for the sake of opposition, then nit is bad form and nothing else. There has to be a dialogue. A constructive dialogue, a reaching out by the treasury to the combined opposition if legislative changes are to be undertaken for the good of India. If this chasm remains, then there is no hope. Feelers need to be sent out by the BJP, arrogance of 282 MPs in the Lok Sabha needs to be kept aside and a new construct needs to be put on the table. The two sides have to talk to each other and not down at one another. The Congress led UPA 2 made the same mistake in 2009 when full of itself with 206 MPs, it displayed an arrogance not seen before as it pursued a dangerous model of welfare economics where it was busy doling out freebies, imperilling the fiscal health of the country. Much like the Congress in 2009, the BJP since May, 2014 has followed the same course. The calculus of numbers resulting in a brain freeze. Time for a reset. While there is no point in obsessing endlessly with legislation, there are some vital reforms which require only legislation. A meeting ground has to be found through a dialogue. One India, One Tax is a necessity. Parliamentary Affairs ministers are required to manage the floor and facilitate dialogue. It is a broad mix of assurances, concessions, give and take et al that allows smooth functioning of parliament and debate and distillation of ideas. The PM speaks out against intolerance to foreign audiences but chooses to keep quiet at home. This too needs to change and his softer side needs to be visible not just to diasporic Indians. Business has to be transacted in parliament, it cannot be a shouting match between two sides, that has to end. My own sense is that the opposition revived by the bit in its teeth after the Bihar victory will be even more strident as it bays for the BJPs' blood in the bull pen. The tyranny of numbers in the Rajya Sabha remains and is not going to change in the foreseeable future. The BJP needs to temper its arrogance and show humility and similarly the opposition led by the Congress has to shake off its role as an angry opposition. Of course, this is utopia, if it happens. Show humility is my call to the BJP, you are only getting a taste of the medicine that you dished out over the last decade. Parliament should be allowed to function, brownie points can be won in debates. Intolerance , suppression of dissent and FDI are already poison arrows that will be shot off the opposition's bows. Start talking now, reach out to one another. I end with another quote from Toba Beta, “Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses. It has only a sharp tongue and the pointing finger.” Forsake this path.
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As it grows at an even rapid pace, social media must encourage competition and discourage abuse of its platforms. A tale of two incidents, says Pranjal Sharma To debate, discuss, analyse, persuade, convince, argue, advocate and perhaps even lobby are basic rights in an open society. To compete, promote, sell, advertise, are basic rights of an open economy. Even though we live in open society and free economy, the struggle to ask for more never ends. There is always the attempt by someone to undermine and attack these rights. So battles are lost and won but war on these can’t be lost. Pranjal SharmaTwo recent developments forced to be rethink these ideas. One was personal and one was global. Let me begin with the global first. Now a new social media site called Tsu.co has been gaining popularity. From just a few, it has grown to more than 4.5 million subscribers. This social media platform combines the features of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc but with a critical difference. It promises to share the revenues of the content with the creator. This is unlike most other platforms like Facebook that offer free platform but sell the content to advertisers. Soon people started posting details about Tsu.co on various other sites including Facebook. Now rather than ignore a newbie like Tsu.co, Facebook is removing every mention of it on it site. Facebook says that that the new site violates certain rules as a reason. Here is the point of the matter, in an open economic environment large companies should not leverage their size to choke new entrants. Especially, in an age of information revolution where the pace of disruption is higher than ever. Social media companies like Facebook grew rapidly because the society was welcoming and rules were not restrictive. Now this environment is being undermined. Combine this with the antagonism that big social media and telecoms companies have to net neutrality and you get an environment where an open innovative economy finds it tough to breathe. Social media created global communities. These communities outgrew nations and aligned themselves to issues, causes and interests. Apart from size, there is another threat to these communities and conversation. While being global these are also local. Here the rising levels of abuse and defamatory activities is creating a toxic environment. Let me now share my personal experience. At recent debates on TV, I shared a certain view on a corporate governance policy. While the debating whether Indian’s government had the right to forcefully merge two private companies, I took the position that such powers should be curbed and defined. This related to the National Spot Exchange matter where the government had forced merger of two companies through a draft order. The matter is in the courts now. After two separate networks aired these debates, the participants were abused on social media by some who held a different view. These people who claimed to represent interests of some investors, did not engage in a constructive debate or conversation on the social platforms. Much of the abuse was manufactured outrage by fake accounts, done in an apparently concerted manner. Most right thinking people are open to debate and are willing to be convinced about the other point of view. Sometimes, you can agree to disagree. In either case, civility is maintained. What social media must focus on is its ability to foster robust debate while disincentivising nasty abuse. The growth in quantity and quality will occur when social media companies are able to create value for its members in an open, accommodative and transparent manner. Consumers will turn away from social media platforms that try to crushing new comers and are unable to curb defamatory abuse. The basics of personal and economic freedom must not be ignored. As it grows at an even more rapid pace, social media companies must encourage competition and discourage abuse of its platforms. Twitter: @pranjalsharma
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Off-lately, healthcare industry has emerged with a need of exclusive platform for doctors, especially to assist them in searching new jobs as the sector is multifarious with uniquely contrasting roles and responsibilities. For instance, lungs disorder is not the cup of tea for a heart specialist, only a pulmonary specialist can offer the best consultation for this. Hence, finding a right job after specialisation can be tedious enough even for the best candidate. The only thing doctors can do is to search on the job portals that comes out to be only a wild goose chase, most of the times. Presently, despite huge requirement for specialised doctors, finding the right job at the right place is tough for the community because the industry is highly un-organized. Especially in India, there is a long way for the healthcare care Industry to substantiate a better and systematic form. Doing away with this chronic issue in the healthcare industry, digital technology has bear out a number of mHealth platforms specially having their orientation towards job search for doctors. A host of medical apps have become part of doctors’ lives today making their job hunts just a finger touch away. For doctors, the traditional methods of finding information from sources such as newspapers and general job portals are on the way to become a passe against the backdrop of rising number of exclusive app platforms for doctors. Gradually, the hunt for jobs is becoming easier for doctors as these platforms have emerged as a direct overpass between health facilities and job seeking health experts. Many apps, mostly doctor-to-doctor ones that have been recently started roping in doctors to connect with each other have begun to realize the need for doctors to look at possible changes from within an environment as enclosed and private. These apps make job search for doctors easy using filters and targeting the most relevant jobs to the most suitable candidate based on various criteria like specialty and location. All that a doctor need to do is read through the job description and hit apply if the same suits them. These apps also provide them a platform to refer such jobs to their friends and colleagues on the network. The technical advantage offered by such apps is they are exclusive for the Healthcare sector. These apps have functionalities to create specific categories based on related specializations of doctors. This makes the apps easy to use with added functionalities that are specific to doctors and health experts. Additionally, doctors could refer their patients using these apps to other fellow doctors whom they trust and are connected via the network. This means specialists who are active on these apps can increase their patient inflow. Additionally, doctors discuss difficult real life cases with their peers on these apps, which helps them gain knowledge and grow in their career. Using medical networking apps, physicians can highlight their works and achievements within their network. This allows others to view their profile and connect with them offering which ultimately leads to opportunities. Furthermore, health facilities or senior doctors from these facilities could connect them via the apps easily and quickly, speeding up the process of finding the right specialists for the right responsibilities. As healthcare apps are exclusive platforms for the medical community, job seekers can find many leads all at one single platform. Therefore, these apps have the potential to evolve into one stop platforms for job seekers in the healthcare industry. The prospects of m Health has augmented considerably in recent times as new features and amenities are being offered one after another by health apps assisting healthcare industry to grow holistically. The author, Nipun Goyal, is co-founder of Cuorfy
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A section of the media too, was supposed to have been hand-in- glove with the political parties, writes D.P.Sharan Setting all speculation to rest, the startling result of Bihar Assembly Elections has put a major question mark not only on the impeccable credentials of the PM-led NDA stalwarts who were routed, but on the mechanisms that have been developed in the recent past to hold opinion and exit polls. Agencies that claimed to have conducted detailed surveys for opinion and exit polls are believed to have suffered a major loss of face after the outcome of the Bihar elections and a veiled stench of their tacit-deals with political parties in the fray for some fat gains cannot be ignored. Significantly, a section of the media too, was supposed to have been hand-in- glove with the political parties. D.P. SharanThe way opinion and exit polls were projected by different agencies and the media -- in a clear contrast to the ground realities -- before the result of the Bihar elections opens the doors to casting aspersions on the integrity of the poll-survey agencies and a section of the media as well. Interestingly, while one prominent news channel came out with opinion poll figure of 155 seats for the NDA soon after the announcement of the elections by the Election Commission presumably to enjoy favours from the party at the Centre, another national channel was quick to declare the BJP and allies winner even on the morning of the counting day. The channel that came out with the opinion poll, stuck to its figure of 155 till the counting of polls and had the opportunity to substantiate it with the same exit poll figures announced by a high-profile pollster for the NDA later. Incidentally, the past bears testimony to the fact that results of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Delhi and Jharkhand had dealt a major blow to the credentials of this high-profile poll-survey agency. The tallies predicted by this agency did not match with the final outcome in the states. Indeed, it had gained a major face-lift in the Lok Sabha elections when it had predicted over 300 seats for NDA that turned out to be true. It is believed that news channels have business interests in Bihar and were convinced of a pro-NDA wave and lent implicit support to it whereas the exit-poll survey conducted by the high-profile agency was apparently sponsored by some corporate houses in favour of the ruling party at the Centre for obvious reasons. Although agencies and media engaged in exit poll surveys in particular have enough reasons to claim immunity from the charges of working in tandem with political parties for gains, their modus operandi remains questionable. They claim that the exit polls are made public after the polling and before the election-result and are not supposed to influence the voters as such, but they are presumably bound to take care of wishes of political parties or corporate houses that hire or sponsor them for the purpose. They work throughout the campaigning in league with news channels to promote the cause of particular political parties by whom they are paid.Unfortunately, in the alleged nexus between pollsters and media, people in general and political parties in particular are cheated the most. If people have been victims of misleading reports by news channels about the elections, sponsors of the pollsters were kept in the dark while depending on the opinion and exit polls outcome. Interestingly, while the major pollsters came out with unrealistic figures by saying their reports were sample surveys, there were some survey agencies that maintained a low key but predicted figures that matched the final tally of seats won by different political forces in the fray. However, one of the major survey agencies has tendered an apology for its assessment of the election result. News channels that brazenly supported the NDA in the elections much against journalist ethics, not only preferred to feign ignorance over what they did in the past but started exercising rapprochement measures by claiming how they called Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav even during the elections and how the two leaders shared their poll strategies. Agencies and news channels that claimed to have read the pulse of the elections in their respective exit polls include News24-Today’s Chanakya, Axis-CBB IBN, NewsX/CNX, ABP/Nielsen, News Nation, Times Now/ CVoter, India Today and NDTV. However, the high-profile pollster Today’s Chanakya had given 155 seats to NDA and reputed media houses such as India Today, Zee News and NDTV had predicted 120 seats -- three short of a simple majority – 155 seats and 125 seats to the NDA, respectively. But the end-result; major humiliation on the part of pollsters and media that lost their hard earned reputation and stood condemned in the eyes of the people and that too, to gain some pecuniary benefits as NDA had only 58 seats and Grand Alliance of non-NDA forces bagged a magnificent 178 seats to retain power in Bihar. The author, D.P. Sharan, is journalist by profession for the past 30 years and has served many national dailies, magazines and channels. He has also been a member at the Central Board of Film Certification , Mumbai under Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India
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