Which one of the following is not an objective of NITI Aayog?
- (a)It provides a critical direction and strategic input for development process.
- (b)It functions as a 'think tank' in providing key elements of policy.
- (c)It monitors and evaluates the implementation of the programmes.
- (d)It offers a platform for resolution of inter-state conflicts as 'provider of first and last resort'.
Correct — D, It offers a platform for resolution of inter-state conflicts as 'provider of first and last resort'. NITI Aayog's own statement of objectives does contain a clause about offering a platform for resolution — but of a different kind of dispute. The official wording is 'To offer a platform for the resolution of inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues in order to accelerate the implementation of the development agenda.' Inter-sectoral and inter-departmental means friction between ministries and between sectors of policy; the option quietly changes it to inter-state, which is a constitutional function belonging elsewhere — to the Inter-State Council under Article 263 for general disputes, and to tribunals under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 for river waters. The quoted phrase 'provider of first and last resort' does not appear anywhere in NITI Aayog's stated objectives either. Two changes to one real clause, and the option becomes the one thing on the list the body is not there to do.
- (a)It provides a critical direction and strategic input for development process. — A genuine objective. NITI Aayog is charged with designing strategic and long-term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives, and with providing strategic policy vision to government.
- (b)It functions as a 'think tank' in providing key elements of policy. — A genuine objective, and one of the four heads under which the body's own work is organised — Policy and Programme Framework, Cooperative Federalism, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Think Tank and Knowledge and Innovation Hub.
- (c)It monitors and evaluates the implementation of the programmes. — A genuine objective, stated as actively monitoring and evaluating the implementation of programmes and initiatives, including identifying the resources needed to improve delivery. The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office is the attached body that does this work.
NITI Aayog — the National Institution for Transforming India — was set up by a Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 in place of the Planning Commission. Unlike its predecessor it allocates no funds and issues no plan targets to States; it advises, benchmarks and convenes. The Prime Minister is its Chairperson, its Governing Council brings in all Chief Ministers and the Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories, and it has a Vice-Chairman, full-time and ex officio members and a Chief Executive Officer. Its attached bodies are the Atal Innovation Mission and the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office.
The trick used here is worth learning as a type, because papers reuse it: take a real clause from an official document and alter one adjective. Anyone who half-remembers 'a platform for the resolution of...' will accept the option, and the only defence is to notice that what NITI Aayog resolves is friction inside the government's own machinery, not disputes between States. A second signal is the quotation marks around 'provider of first and last resort' — an unattributed quoted phrase in an option is often invented, and this one is. On substance, the reason NITI Aayog could not be the first and last resort for inter-state conflicts is structural: it is an executive body created by resolution, with no adjudicatory power, while inter-state disputes are handled by constitutional and statutory machinery whose awards bind. What NITI Aayog does carry is the cooperative-federalism mandate — evolving a shared vision with the active involvement of States — and that is a very different thing from settling quarrels between them.
- NITI Aayog's stated objective is 'To offer a platform for the resolution of inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues in order to accelerate the implementation of the development agenda.'
- It was created by a Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015, replacing the Planning Commission of 1950.
- Its four heads of activity are Policy and Programme Framework, Cooperative Federalism, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Think Tank and Knowledge and Innovation Hub.
- Inter-state disputes fall to the Inter-State Council under Article 263, and inter-state river water disputes to tribunals under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
- Its attached offices are the Atal Innovation Mission and the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, with NILERD as an autonomous body.
- Accepting an option because part of it is quoted correctly; here 'a platform for the resolution of' is real and 'inter-state' is not.
- Confusing NITI Aayog's advisory role with an adjudicatory one; it settles no disputes and its recommendations do not bind.
- Assuming NITI Aayog allocates funds to States as the Planning Commission did; it does not.
Asked as a which-is-not item where three options paraphrase real objectives and one alters a single word of a fourth.
The Government of India has established NITI Aayog to replace the
- (a) Human Rights Commission
- (b) Finance Commission
- (c) Law Commission
- (d) Planning Commission
Answer(d) Planning Commission
Asked in the year the body was created, and it fixes the point that decides this question. NITI Aayog took over the Planning Commission's advisory role but not its power to allocate, which is why an adjudicatory function between States was never part of its design.
According to the National Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) constructed by the NITI Aayog, a household is considered deprived if 1. a single member of the household is identified as under-nourished 2. the body mass index of a woman member, between 15 years and 49 years of age, is below 18·5 kg/m² Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
The same body, tested on what it actually produces. Index-building of this kind is the think-tank and monitoring work NITI Aayog is mandated to do, and it is a useful contrast with the dispute-settling role the CDS option wrongly assigns to it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Disputes between two or more States relating to the waters of an inter-State river are referred for adjudication to
- (a)NITI Aayog
- (b)A tribunal constituted under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956
- (c)The National Development Council
- (d)The Finance Commission
Answer(b) A tribunal constituted under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 — enacted under Article 262, which also lets Parliament bar the courts' jurisdiction in such disputes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is a difference between NITI Aayog and the Planning Commission it replaced?
- (a)NITI Aayog is chaired by the Prime Minister, the Planning Commission was not
- (b)NITI Aayog does not allocate funds to States, whereas the Planning Commission did
- (c)NITI Aayog was created by a constitutional amendment, the Planning Commission by a resolution
- (d)NITI Aayog has no Chief Executive Officer
Answer(b) NITI Aayog does not allocate funds to States, whereas the Planning Commission did — both bodies were created by executive resolution and both are chaired by the Prime Minister.