CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 23 of 120

Correct — D, 3 only. NITI Aayog was set up by a Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission, and it is an advisory body — the Government's apex public policy think tank, charged with catalysing economic development and with fostering cooperative federalism by drawing state governments into policy-making. Designing strategy and long-term policy and programme frameworks is precisely the work of such a body, so statement 3 stands. Statement 1 contradicts its founding purpose: the Planning Commission worked top-down and NITI Aayog was created to work the other way, with the states, so imposing policies on them is the opposite of its remit. Statement 2 credits it with a power it does not have. NITI Aayog does not allocate funds. The devolution of central taxes to states is recommended by the Finance Commission under Article 280 and given effect through the Union Budget, while scheme money is released by the ministries concerned.

• (a)1 and 2 only — Takes the two powers NITI Aayog was deliberately not given and leaves out the one function it actually performs. Both statements describe the older, more directive planning body rather than the present one.
• (b)2 and 3 only — Keeps the true statement 3 but adds fund allocation. That was the Planning Commission's role, and transferring it away was one of the substantive changes made in 2015; today the Finance Commission and the Finance Ministry handle it.
• (c)1, 2 and 3 — The all-of-them option, and it fails on the two statements that describe a directive planning authority. NITI Aayog can advise, recommend, benchmark and evaluate, but it cannot direct a state or release money to one.

NITI Aayog, the National Institution for Transforming India, came into being on 1 January 2015 by Cabinet resolution, replacing the Planning Commission of 1950. The Prime Minister chairs it; its Governing Council brings together the chief ministers of all states and the lieutenant governors of the union territories; and it is run day to day by a chief executive officer appointed by the Prime Minister. It has no statutory or constitutional basis, and no financial powers. Its instruments are advice, strategy documents, indices such as the SDG India Index and the multidimensional poverty index, and the convening power that comes from having every chief minister around one table.

The item tests one idea — that replacing the Planning Commission meant giving up two things, the power to direct and the power to allocate. Anyone who holds that in mind answers in seconds, because statements 1 and 2 name exactly those two surrendered powers. CDS has probed the same distinction more than once; in 2021 it asked which of four descriptions was not an objective of NITI Aayog, and the three it accepted were all of the advisory and evaluative kind. One caveat about sourcing is worth stating plainly: NITI Aayog's own website returns an error to automated retrieval, so the wording of the founding Cabinet Resolution could not be quoted here directly. Statement 3 is supported instead by NITI Aayog's official description of itself as the Government's apex public policy think tank, and by that earlier CDS item's treatment of strategic direction and policy input as genuine objectives.

• NITI Aayog was created by a Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 and replaced the Planning Commission, which had been set up in 1950.
• It is an advisory think tank with no statutory or constitutional status and no power to allocate funds to states.
• The devolution of central taxes among the states is recommended by the Finance Commission under Article 280 of the Constitution.
• The Prime Minister is its chairperson, and the Governing Council comprises the chief ministers of all states and the lieutenant governors of the union territories.
• Its stated approach is bottom-up and cooperative, in contrast to the Planning Commission's top-down model.

• Carrying the Planning Commission's fund-allocation role over to NITI Aayog.
• Assuming that a body chaired by the Prime Minister must be able to direct the states.
• Treating NITI Aayog as a constitutional or statutory body; it rests on a Cabinet resolution.

As a statements item on its objectives, as a which-is-not-an-objective item, or as a comparison with the Planning Commission or the Finance Commission.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The recommendation regarding the distribution of the net proceeds of central taxes between the Union and the States is made by

  • (a)NITI Aayog
  • (b)The Finance Commission
  • (c)The Comptroller and Auditor General
  • (d)The Inter-State Council

  Answer(b) The Finance Commission — Article 280 makes it the body that recommends tax devolution, a role NITI Aayog does not have.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  NITI Aayog was established on which one of the following dates?

  • (a)15 August 2014
  • (b)1 January 2015
  • (c)1 April 2015
  • (d)26 January 2016

  Answer(b) 1 January 2015 — it came into being by Cabinet resolution on that date, replacing the Planning Commission.