Be Indian

What's in a name, some may ask in an echo of a Shakespearean question which asked whether a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. A lot, if a recent communication from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, is anything to go by. The AICTE, which is the government-sponsored body created for overseeing education in management and architecture, has asked the ISB to delete "Indian" from the B-school's name. Reason: the term "Indian" can be used only in accordance with the regulations of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. This law was brought into force half a century ago, to prevent the improper use of certain emblems and names for professional and commercial purposes. In particular, it prohibits any organisation from using names that may "suggest or be calculated to suggest" that it has the "patronage of the Government of India or the government of a state or has any connection with any local authority or body constituted by the government". In this instance the AICTE, acting on the advice of the ministry of human resource development, has demanded a change of name from the ISB. The institute's response is that it is an organisation registered under the Companies Act and has got approval for it from another government body. For now, it has not gone beyond seeking clarifications from the government.

This is not the first time that such an issue has come up. There have been instances when companies and private institutions have come under scrutiny for ostensible violation of the Act. But what is curious is that there are still scores of companies and institutions, in the private sector and not associated with any government, which have names suggesting a similar connotation. It is easy to list Indian Aluminium, India Cements, IndiaBulls, and many more""none of which has been favoured with an official objection to its name. For that matter, there are also the National Council of Applied Economic Research, and the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations""both are autonomous bodies and independent of the government; so do they violate the law by using the names that they do?

The case of the ISB draws interest for two reasons. First, unlike other business schools, it has not sought recognition by the AICTE, believing that its reputation has independent standing and that it is therefore not in need of any official imprimatur, such as recognition by the AICTE. Second, the issue has come at a time when the government is making efforts to increase reservation for backward classes in institutions of higher education and the private sector. Is the ministry merely trying to get all institutions of higher education within its control? Readers will recall the NDA government's HRD minister and his attempt to gain control of the institutes of management.

A few years back, businessman-politician Navin Jindal got a favourable verdict from the court when he argued that private individuals had the right to use the national flag on their premises. The point is that many such laws are hangovers from a colonial past. These may have served a purpose in the initial days after Independence; but nearly six decades later, the time must surely have come for the government to rewrite some of these laws.