The current determination by the Union Cupboard to rename Kerala as ‘Keralam’ seeks to align the state’s official title with its linguistic roots in Malayalam. However the state’s proposal for identify change has merely cleared its first hurdle with the Cupboard go-forward and this clearance additionally got here two years after the Kerala Legislative Meeting had handed a decision. In totality although, the identify change course of, which was met with cheers, memes and much commentary on social media, might be a lengthy affair. First, the President should refer a invoice for this objective to the state meeting and thereafter the Centre has to introduce a invoice in Parliament.
Not solely is the identify change course of doubtless to take time, this cultural milestone for Kerala would additionally entail a substantial price ticket. It’s clear from earlier such workout routines that renaming a state is an costly administrative enterprise. Throughout a 2006 parliamentary debate relating to the transition from Uttaranchal to Uttarakhand, the then BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad famous that the train might cost between Rs 400-500 crore.
The Olivier System
To estimate the cost of renaming a state, a framework developed by South African mental property lawyer, Darren Olivier, is useful. Olivier handled a state like a company entity, suggesting that a giant organisation would usually spend about 6 per cent of its income on advertising. And a complete rebranding (like a identify change) requires roughly one-tenth of this advertising finances for a company entity. In different phrases, 0.6 per cent of income of this entity might be spent on rebranding.
Changing the big company entity with a state, one can use the identical components. So, 0.6 per cent of a state’s complete income receipts could be the quantity it would spend in altering its identify. As per a PRS Legislative evaluation, Kerala’s receipts (excluding borrowings) for 2025-26 had been Rs 1,53,544 crore.
Making use of the Olivier components, the estimated cost of renaming Kerala as Keralam could be Rs 920 crore, i.e, 0.6 per cent of Rs 1.53 lakh crore.
Adjustments required
The everyday bills related to renaming a state embody spending on new infrastructure and signage; updating authorities stationery, letterheads, seals and ID playing cards; modifying official web sites and archives. Signages on roads, highways, railway stations, airports and authorities buildings additionally want to get replaced.
Not solely will the state bear administrative prices due to the identify change, personal companies and establishments additionally want to replace paperwork, redo branding and packaging with the brand new identify.
Will people even have to shell out some cash when attempting to register new property deeds, get hold of passports and different authorities paperwork and so forth underneath the brand new identify? India’s former Chief statistician, Pronab Sen, stated the change in identify of a state ought to ideally cost nothing for people. “That’s, if a affordable transition interval is allowed, throughout which each, the outdated and the brand new identify, are allowed to be used.” When Orissa’s identify was modified to Odisha, “there was no nice monetary cost for people since each names had been allowed to be used for a while”, Sen identified.
He sought to differentiate the change in identify to Keralam from cases when new states had been carved out of current states similar to Uttarakhand (first known as Uttaranchal) from Uttar Pradesh and Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. “Creation of a new state is a very costly proposition as a result of the whole authorities construction has to be constructed from scratch within the new state. Within the case of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a new capital metropolis had to be created,” Sen added. This required tens of hundreds of crores in creating infrastructure and a separate id.
Not simply states, some union territories have additionally been by way of identify modifications. For example, Pondicherry was renamed as Puducherry in 2006.
Advantages of identify change
Whereas the cost of including a single letter to Kerala’s identify could be substantial, it may lead to a minor financial fillip to particular sectors. These embody printing presses and development crews tasked with updating signage. The previous could be stored busy printing new letterheads and stationery, for official and personal sector wants. The development sector would additionally marginally profit throughout this train. Some man days of works would even be created. However the bills are virtually sure to exceed the advantages of this renaming train.
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