Professor Vinod Anand

RATIONALITY as a term is related to the idea of reason, a word which is derived as much from older terms referring to thinking itself as from giving an account or an explanation. To act "rationally" is to act in one's own best interest. Players can be counted on to use strategies that will get them the best possible payoff given their understanding of the game. This idea of "rational" behaviour is the basis for game theory as a whole. It also refers to a decision making process in which one attempts to do the best one can for oneself using the resources at one's disposal economically. It is a trait which individuals or collectivities display in their thought, conduct or social institutions. Various features can be seen, singly or jointly, as marks or defining features of rationality.

However, rationality is a much broader term than logic, as it includes "uncertain but sensible" arguments based on probability, expectation, personal experience and the like, whereas logic deals principally with provable facts and demonstrably valid relations between them.

Rationality in fact can be understood in different ways:
It is the state of having good sense and sound judgment; it is the quality of being consistent with or based on logic; it reflects an agreement with reason; possession of reason; due exercise of reason; reasonableness; objectivity, thoughtfulness; it is consistent with or based on or using reason; "rational behavior"; It is a process of rational inference; it is also linked with "rational thought; it is associated with the use of the mind; it also refers to the triumph of the rational over the animal side of man; it has its source in or being guided by the intellect (as distinguished from experience or emotion); Rational users take actions that maximize their utility; It refers to drawing conclusions form juxtaposing facts to each other.
In a number of kinds of speech, "rational" may also denote a hodge-podge of generally positive attributes, including:
• reasonable: "having sound judgment" reasonable:
• "not extreme or excessive"
• justifiable on the basis of reason (as opposed to tradition or emotional response).
• not foolish
• sane
• good
Useful contrasts may include:
• rational vs. emotional
• rational vs. creative
• rational vs. spiritual
• reason vs. divine truth
Rationality has another dimension which is called epistemic rationality. This has two major components:
• Smarts: ability that infers truth from information under ideal circumstances through by attending.
• Toughness: An ability to limit performance degradation as circumstances worsen.
Attending takes time, energy, quiet, etc. Circumstances where human rationality degrades include when:
• We expect the truth remains hidden for long time.
• The stakes are very low, or very high.
• Others see our opinions, and prefer certain ones.
• The topics are where humans often self-deceive.

It seems relatively easy to test rationality smarts; repeatedly give folks information and time to work new problems and measure their accuracy, calibration, etc. For testing rationality toughness compares performance on information on similar pairs of good/bad-circumstance problems.

For example, assume people are better at evaluating if a spouse is cheating when considering an acquaintance in their social circle, relative to a stranger or their own spouse. If so, we could pose them a pair of problems with very similar information structure, one with an easy spouse and one with a hard spouse. The closeness of their response in these two cases would then be a measure of their rationality toughness.

Of course this test may fail if the similarity is too obvious, or the pair is asked too closely in time. But maybe we don't even need to ask the same person the two questions; perhaps we could usefully compare someone's answer on a hard question to answers from a pool of similar people on matched easy questions.

There is also a training technique: consider matched hard/easy circumstance problems and compare your answers, separated by enough time that you forget most of your previous analysis.

Rationality is also understood in terms of the fulfillment of the following axioms:

 COMPLETENESS: If A and B are any two situations/options, the economic agent always specifies one of these decisions: he either prefers A to B, or B to A, or he prefers both equally (i.e. he is indifferent between them). This axiom eliminates the possibility of lack of decision.
 TRANSITIVITY: If the economic agent prefers A to B, and B to C, then he must prefer A to C. This axiom assures internal consistency of individual choice.
 CONTINUITY: If an economic agent prefers A to B, then he must prefer A to an option in the neighbourhood of B (i.e., B). This axiom essentially facilitates mathematical treatment of rational choice in terms of continuity.

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Foreign journalists get tour of 26/11 sites

Gurpreet Singh

IN an obvious attempt to keep the Mumbai terror attack issue alive, the foreign journalists that came to India to attend the Parvasi Bhartiya Divas were given a tour of the sites that were targeted by the terrorists on November 26, 2008. A team of journalists from 15 countries, including this correspondent, were taken to the different places in Mumbai that came under attack by Wing Commander, MV Rajavikraman, an Indian Air Force officer on special duty with the Ministry of External Affairs (MOEA).

The journalists were given a quick tour in a special bus that took them to the CST, the Kama hospital, The Taj hotel and a café that were targeted during the attack that left more than 150 people dead. The Trident hotel, where the journalists stayed had also come under attack that was blamed on Pakistan based Islamic terrorists. The incident had stalled dialogue between the two neighbouring countries.

Wing Commander Rajavikraman, who is a sky diver and is currently on deputation with the public diplomacy division of the MOEA, revealed that this was the idea of Corporal Sunil Kumar. It is not a coincidence that the Canadian journalists were also given a tour of the Chabad House, the Jewish community center that was also targeted by the terrorists, when the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper visit India in November. Strategically, India aims to isolate Pakistan diplomatically and also showcase to the world the challenges it continues to face from the subversive elements active across the border.

Although life in Mumbai remains normal and people of the city are resilient to recover from repeated terror attacks even in the past, the hotels that were targeted continue to maintain high level of security. Frisking of the guests and bag check are common at both the Taj and the Trident hotels. Mumbai being a financial capital of India continues to attract foreign tourists and both these hotels host guests coming from outside the country. Being close to the sea that was used by the attackers, the hotels have beefed up security in view of the peak tourist season. The Trident hotel does not allow photography in the main lobby, where a small plaque carrying the names of the victims of the attack greets visitors. Among them was Jasmine Bhurji, a young employee whose aunt lives in Surrey, Canada. Her name was read out in the BC legislature following the attack by the MLA, Dev Hayer in recognition of her relatives who reside in his riding.

While interacting with the media, the head of the Corporate Affairs of the Bombay Stock Exchange, Kalyan S. Bose pointed out that the attack had no impact on the stock market. He described this phenomenon as a show of defiance by the Indian public. The Bombay Stock Exchange was also targeted in a terrorist attack in 1993.

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Modi steals the show at Parvasi Bhartiya Divas

Gurpreet Singh

THANKS to the absence of the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal at the Parvasi Bhartiya Divas held in New Delhi, his counterpart in Gujarat, Narendra Modi stole the show. Badal had skipped the conference of the state Chief Ministers seeking Foreign Direct Investment in their territories. Instead he sent his son and the Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal to present the case of his state before the foreign delegates.

Had Badal showed up, he would have been the first one to speak because of his seniority. In his absence, Modi being the second senior most Chief Minister after Badal was invited first to speak. Badal junior was the last one to speak and was the only Deputy Chief Minister, who represented his state. This had given some edge to Modi over the other chief minister and he virtually set the tune of the conference. One after another, Modi went on with the list of the achievements his state has done in terms of development and progress.

His oratory skills and speech in Hindi evoked big applauses, while his ambitious plans to build lot of firsts in his state, including the proposed Forensic Science University had enthralled many delegates. Others who spoke on the occasion included the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan. Taking a cue from Modi most speakers tried to present as much rosy picture of their states as they could to win the confidence of the potential foreign investors. They emphasized on the tourist industry and natural resources within their jurisdictions. The only exception was Abdullah, who begged for foreign investment in his violence ridden state. He acknowledged that due to terrorism in his state, a sense of fear existed in the minds of the outsiders. Chavan said that he would urge the Non Resident Indians to invest anywhere in India.

Barring Punjab, the officials from these states present during the conference distributed well documented booklets and brochures with an enormous information about their provinces among the delegates. Badal emphasized more on the youngest population of Punjab and his government’s endeavor to turn into a skilled force that can be employed in other countries. His separate presentation in the state level conference was far more effective. While addressing the gathering of the foreign delegates, most of who belonged to Punjab in English he presented facts and figures about the areas where the people of Indian origin can invest. Among them were tourism, infrastructure development and education. He assured full cooperation to the investors on behalf of his government. He also announced that the Punjab government is soon going to establish an NRI (Non- resident Indian) commission while a special fast track court and special police stations for the Indians abroad have already been formed in Punjab.

Later, the foreign delegates shared their grievances with Badal. Among them were the Sikhs from France, who sought his government’s intervention in the turban issue. The French government has banned the Sikh students from wearing turbans in public schools. A 10 member delegation that came to attend the Parvasi Bhartiya Divas urged him to look into the matter. However, Badal said that his government cannot interfere in this case directly and it was up to the central government to pursue this matter at the highest level.

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