So the new game in town is called “NITI Ayog” — National Institution for Transforming India — and the news is that Prof Arvind Panagariya will be appointed as the vice-chairman of the institution, as the Hindustan Times reports. That “Niti” bit may sound familiar to some who have been following this blog. If you recall, my book of 2011 is titled “Transforming India” and in 2012, my colleague and I decided that “New Initiatives for Transforming India” or NITI would be a good word to use for all our initiatives related to . . . wait for it . . . transforming India. Why? Because in Sanskrit (and so in Hindi and Bengali), Niti (or नीति in Devanagri) means variously “morality, policy, ethics, the right path” etc. Our goal was to figure out how to bring about — and help in — the transformation of India. We wanted India’s transformation and continue to do so. “NITI Central” was one of those initiatives.
So I am quite tickled to note that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has relabeled the old Planning Commission as the “National Institution for Transforming India”. It is the old planning commission with a new name. Of course, you all know how I feel about central planning and how wonderful it is for human welfare. Anyway, here’s wishing NITI Ayog the best and hoping that it lives up to its meaning.
Correction: I had mistakenly believed that NITI Ayog was “New Institution for Transforming India” but I was corrected (hat tip Anup) that it was actually “National Institution for Transforming India.” I regret the error (as they say in the MSM.)
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
Sorry If my words are harsh or my english is not spohisticated.
was surfing net on NITI and landed here. then read a couple of your blogs on swami ramdev ( you call him Baba Ramdev and are scared that he can cause great harm to the nation if he interferes in fields outside his expertise). You live in San jose, because you don’t like it here (in india).
You talk volumes about indian economics and the number game, at times expressing your opinion on various other topics. In one of your Blogs you mentioned :
“………….. it was to argue that the Vedas are scientific. I don’t buy that.”
” I am aware of the lines from Carl Sagan in his series “COSMOS” where he said …… Very intuitively clever people did that sort of conjecturing. But that is all it is: a nice bit of guess work. Now to another matter. Nuclear technology and flying machines supposedly available to ancient Indians. That is so much hogwash that I cannot even begin to clear it up.”
WELL WHO ASKED YOU TO CLEAR IT UP AND FOR WHAT REASON? TO WRITE A BOOK AND CONFUSE PEOPLE FURTHER WITH YOUR ARITHMETIC APPROACH??
ITS SURPRISING THAT PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY IN LIFE, GET A GOOD JOB and CONDEMN VEDAS LIKE THIS.
(i am just a high school drop out but have a lot of faith in VEDAS ( i used to be an Indian muslim, surprised DON’T BE, then one fine day I EMBRACED HINDUISM OR MAY BE HINDUISM EMBRACED ME), nobody has forced or brainwashed me to be like that !! I do know a little science but more powerful than that is my PERCEPTION)
Dr. Carl Sagan, in his book, Cosmos says:
“The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths.
It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology.
Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still.”
There is the deep and appealing notion that the universe is but the dream of the god who, after a Brahma years, dissolves himself into a dreamless sleep. The universe dissolves with him – until, after another Brahma century, he stirs, recomposes himself and begins again to dream the great cosmic dream.”
Sagan continues, “A millennium before Europeans were wiling to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions”.
You know what other famous personalities like TESLA,J. Robert Oppenheimer, Max Mueller(before death) , W. Heisenberg, T.S.Eliot, W Wilcox, Henry David Thoreau, Alfred North Whitehead, think about Hinduism and vedas. Right?? and yeah your fav Einstein. WILL LEAVE THE VEDAS HERE FOR I WISH TO SAY SOMETHING ELSE THROUGH THIS COMMENT.
So you think you are smarter than these guys, sorry if you think so.
By the way Einstein’s E=MC*2 misses a constant. Ever Heard of :
DR ECG SUDARSHAN , DR YELLAPRAGADA SUBBAROW, SATYENDRANATH BOSE, JC BOSE, RAMANUJAM . . .
HAVE U EVER WONDERED WHY MAJORITY OF NOBEL F#CK LAUREATES ARE JEWS OR OF JEWISH ORIGIN OR AFFILIATED TO THEM IN SOME WAY OR THE OTHER??
GOOGLE SHOWS “26,000,000 RESULTS ON ROTHSCHILD” YET WE NEVER EVER HEARD OF THIS NAME IN INDIA OR INDIAN MSM OR POLITICIANS??
IS IT POSSIBLE THAT MOST OF OUR ANCIENT HINDU LITERATURE WAS DESTROYED OR ORIGINALS STOLEN, LATER USED IN SOME OTHER LANGUAGE IN SOME OTHER PART OF THE WORLD. AND IN RETURN WE GOT ADULTERED VERSIONS OF VARIOUS SCRIPTURES TO MALIGN OUR RELIGION AND MAKE US A laughing stock and make people like you partially self loathing (when it comes to our so called mythologies).??
IF I HAVE THE POWER , I CAN DESTROY ALL COPIES OF BOOK WRITTEN BY YOU, RETAIN THE ORIGINAL AND THEN RE-PRODUCE BY ADDING STUPIDITY SUCH THAT PEOPLE ESPECIALLY YOUR FUTURE DESCENDANTS WOULD BELIVE IT THAT YOU WROTE IT AND WOULD BECOME LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WORLD. YET SELECT FEW BY ME WOULD GET TO READ THE ORIGINAL MINUS ANY CREDIT TO YOU?? WHAT DO YOU SAY??
NOW YOU WOULD SAY I AM ASSUMING THINGS?? YEAH 100 YEARS BACK ONE WOULD BE ASSUMING ROBOTICS?? SO ITS POSSIBLE THAT FUTURE WILL SHOW US WHAT THE REAL WORTH OF VEDAS IS AND WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINALS?? WHETHER MAHABHARATA WAS JUST A MYTH OR A FACT?? YOU WANT EVIDENCE’S RIGHT FOR YOU GO BY THE BOOK. NOT YOUR FAULT THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT?? THE DARWINIAN WAY??
YOU WILL DENIE MACAULEY’S SPEECH OF 1835 OR 1833 SO WON’T DISCUSS THAT. BUT WHY WAS THE INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM DESTROYED BY BRITISH AND PREVIOUSLY MOGHULS?? THEY WANTED TO RULE, SO THEY COULD HAVE EDUCATED A FEW, WHY THEY WERE SO CONCERNED ABOUT OUR DEVELOPMENT, IF THEY WERE, WHY THEY FORCEFULLY RULED INDIA??
WAS GANDHI A PATRIOT OR WAS HE HIRED?? WHY CONGRESS PURCHASED THOSE LETTERS FROM UK AUCTION BETWEEN GANDHI AND KALLENBACH?? WHO AND WHY KILLED GANDHI?? GODSE REALLY??
INDIRA GANDHI NATIONALISED BANKS IN 1969 AND THEN IN 1980. SHOT DEAD IN 1984??
DURING RAJIV GANDHI’S TENURE WE SUCCEEDED WITH PARAM IN 1988, HE WAS KILLED IN 1991?? CO-INCIDENCE, REALLY??
DR NAMBI NARAYANAN CASE ? A TRAITOR WAS HE??
WHO WAS BEHIND MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK?? PAKISTAN, REALLY !!! OR WAS IT A DIAMOND GAME??
INDIAN MSM CRITICIZED MODI TILL 2013 DEC, THEN SUDDENLY TOOK A U-TURN IN FEB 2014 AND STARTED ALL PRAISES FOR MODI?? WHY SO MUCH COVERAGE?? WHAT WAS THE AIPAC ISRAELI CONNECTION??
I CAN GO ON WITH THIS SO CALLED CRAP OF MINE, UR COMMENTS SECTION IS TOO SMALL??
LET ME ASK YOU ARE AN ECONOMIST, SO WHERE DO YOU SEE THE US ECONOMY? WHERE DID ALL US TAX PAYERS MONEY GO, THAT US DEBT IS 18TRILLION USD AND INCREASING EVERY SECOND?? HAVE THEY ENJOYED IT LIKE ITALY.
I SEE EITHER A WW3 SAVE AMERICA OR YANKS CRYING IN A FEW YEARS AND THEN YOU WOULD FLEE TO SOME SAVE HEAVEN COUNTRY??
I ALSO DON’T BUY THAT YOU ARE UN-AWARE OF ALL THE ABOVE ASSUMPTIONS? BUT IS IT YOUR ARITHMETIC BRAIN THAT’S STOPPING YOU TO SPEAK TRUTH OR ARE YOU AFRAID OF DOING SO?? I VOTED FOR BJP, YET I NOW FEEL MODI IS UNDER SOME PRESSURE, OR MAY BE HE ALWAYS WAS AND SOMEBODY IS PLAYING THE GAME BEHIND??
INDIANS WHO DROP VEDAS AND SO CALLED GLORIOUS ANCIENT INDIA INSPIRED BY MODERN WESTERN NAY JEWISH IDEOLOGIES ARE OFTEN AWARDED A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE OR MAGSAYSAY AWARD FOR DISTORTING THE THOUGHT OF A COMMON INDIAN, COUNT YOURSELF IN.
I AM SCARED TOO TO REVEAL MYSELF BECAUSE YOU HAVE A REPUTED AUDIENCE FOLLOW YOU ON TWITTER, WILL DELETE THIS COMMENT SOON?
I KNOW YOU KNOW ALL THIS, I JUST HOPE IF NOT SPEAKING THIS TO THE WORLD ATLEAST YOU WONT MAKE A FOOL OF INDIANS INFRONT OF GORA G##NDS !! HUMBLE REQUEST !!
SORRY AGAIN, IF THIS COMMENT SOUNDS FOOLISH TO YOU KINDLY IGNORE.
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