New name problems

Months after PM Narendra Modi declared the Planning Commission would be disbanded, there is finally news on what will replace it. Though few details are known, in the afternoon on Thursday the PM announced the replacement would be called the "Niti Aayog" - or, actually, NITI Aayog, with NITI apparently standing for 'National Institution for Transforming India', yet another sign of the his predilection for acronyms. In the absence of too many other details, much attention was focused on the name. Some pointed out that "Institution" and "Aayog" seemed to imply different purposes. Others wondered what it would be called familiarly - "the Institution"? "The Aayog"? One policy economist, when this question was put to him, declared it was an unnecessary question. "Look to the history of new names in this country," he said. "As with other such renaming exercises, it will just continue to be called 'the Commission'."