NITI Aayog and Planning

Planning Commission and National Development Council: Historical Role

The Basics

The Planning Commission and the National Development Council guided India's development strategy for over six decades. Neither body is mentioned in the Constitution. Both were created later by simple executive resolutions of the Government of India. Both worked only in an advisory capacity. Their recommendations became binding only after the Union Cabinet approved them.

Five Year Plans in India: History, Objectives and Key Plans

The Basics

India adopted Five Year Plans, borrowing the idea from the Soviet Union. Leaders agreed that development could not be left to private players alone. Even industrialists, through the 1944 Bombay Plan, wanted state-led planned growth. Each plan set income and spending targets for five years. Government budgets were split into a routine part and a five-year plan part.

NITI Aayog: Establishment, Composition and Objectives

The Basics

NITI Aayog stands for National Institution for Transforming India. It is the premier policy think tank of the Government of India. It gives policy and directional advice to the Centre and the states. It replaced the Planning Commission, which the government had scrapped.

NITI Aayog: Functions and Cooperative Federalism

Note coming soon.