NITI Aayog not transforming India

Is the NITI Aayog an "institute" or a "commission"? With his childish penchant for converting Hindi words into English acronyms, Narendra Modi has expanded NITI"sound advice"—to "National Institute for Transforming India', and then added "Aayog", Hindi for "commission". So, NITI Aayog remains mystified over its role.

- MANI SHANKAR AIYAR

The erstwhile Planning Commission had hard financial clout. The NITI Aayog's role is at best "advisory', moreover, the NITI Aayog's attempt to position itself as the principal think-tank of the government has failed because there is endless overlap between "advice" tendered by NITI and the quite separate counsels, often on the same set of subjects, by the prime minister's economic advisory council and the chief economic advisor sitting in the finance ministry (and oftentimes the Reserve Bank of India), not to mention the private think-tanks of saffron tendency such as the India Foundation and the Vivekananda Foundation, and earlier world-renowned independent think-tanks like the Centre for Policy Research that the saffron forces are attempting to sabotage and infiltrate. Worse, these various bodies outdo each other to act as echo chambers for what the prime minister wishes to hear—for if they did not, they would soon be out on their ear.