Previous Year Question

The question concerns the Five-Year Plan process that existed in India at the time. In 2014, the Planning Commission and the National Development Council were principal institutions in the planning framework.

The National Development Council was directly associated with planning. It was established through an executive resolution in 1952. The Prime Minister chaired it, and Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of States and members of the Planning Commission participated in it. Its principal functions included considering draft Five-Year Plans, mobilising national resources and efforts in support of plans and promoting coordination between the Union and the States.

Parliament was also associated with the planning process. Five-Year Plans were not themselves statutes enacted by Parliament, but they were discussed in Parliament. Their implementation required parliamentary approval of annual budgets, demands for grants and appropriations. Parliament was therefore connected with the financing and accountability aspects of planning.

The Finance Commission is not a plan-formulation body. Constituted under Article 280, its principal function is to recommend the distribution of net tax proceeds between the Union and the States and principles governing grants-in-aid. The functions of the Planning Commission and Finance Commission were distinct, even though both concerned public finance.

The Ministries of Rural Development and Urban Development prepared and implemented schemes and programmes in their respective sectors. However, in the institutional sense intended by the question, they were not treated as apex national planning bodies. Among the given options, the National Development Council and Parliament form the correct combination.

The Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan, covering 2012–2017, was India’s final Five-Year Plan. The answer must therefore be determined according to the planning system prevailing in 2014.