Which of the following statements about the NITI Aayog is/are correct? 1. Prime Minister of India is the Chairperson of its Governing Council. 2. Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh is a member of its Governing Council. Select the answer using the code given below:

Q: What is the answer to CDS (I) 2025 GK Q85?

C. Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. The Governing Council of NITI Aayog is not described in any statute; it exists under paragraph 13(b) of the Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 that created NITI Aayog, and its membership is fixed by a Cabinet Secretariat notification. The current one, dated 19 February 2021, sets out the composition as a numbered list. Entry 1 reads 'Chairperson: Prime Minister of India', which settles the first statement — the Prime Minister does not merely attend the Council, he chairs it, and every one of its meetings has been held under his chairmanship. Entries 5 to 35 are the Chief Ministers of every State and of the three Union Territories that have a legislature. Entry 36 is the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and entry 37 the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, which settles the second. The distinction the notification then draws is worth noting: it is the Administrators of Chandigarh, of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and of Lakshadweep who appear separately as special invitees, not the two Lieutenant Governors. Ladakh's place on the list is recent, because the Union Territory itself only came into being on 31 October 2019 — the earlier notification of 16 February 2015 ended at entry 36 with Andaman and Nicobar Islands alone. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer

Why

Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. The Governing Council of NITI Aayog is not described in any statute; it exists under paragraph 13(b) of the Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 that created NITI Aayog, and its membership is fixed by a Cabinet Secretariat notification. The current one, dated 19 February 2021, sets out the composition as a numbered list. Entry 1 reads 'Chairperson: Prime Minister of India', which settles the first statement — the Prime Minister does not merely attend the Council, he chairs it, and every one of its meetings has been held under his chairmanship. Entries 5 to 35 are the Chief Ministers of every State and of the three Union Territories that have a legislature. Entry 36 is the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and entry 37 the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, which settles the second. The distinction the notification then draws is worth noting: it is the Administrators of Chandigarh, of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and of Lakshadweep who appear separately as special invitees, not the two Lieutenant Governors. Ladakh's place on the list is recent, because the Union Territory itself only came into being on 31 October 2019 — the earlier notification of 16 February 2015 ended at entry 36 with Andaman and Nicobar Islands alone.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1 only — Accepts the Prime Minister but drops Ladakh. The 2021 notification names the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh in the numbered composition at entry 37, immediately after the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
(b)2 only — Accepts Ladakh but drops the Prime Minister, which cannot be right. The very first line of the composition is 'Chairperson: Prime Minister of India'.
(d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Both statements are supported by the notification, so nothing here is left to reject.

Concept

NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission with effect from 1 January 2015. It is neither a constitutional body nor a statutory one — it was created by a Cabinet resolution, and it can be reshaped the same way, which is why its composition arrives through Cabinet Secretariat notifications rather than through amendments to an Act. Its work is advisory: it designs strategy, runs indices such as the SDG India Index and the Aspirational Districts Programme, and provides a forum for the Centre and the States. It does not allocate funds, which the Planning Commission did and which is now the Finance Ministry's business.

The trap in statement 2 is quiet. A candidate who remembers the 2015 formula — Chief Ministers of the States and Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories — may hesitate because Ladakh did not exist in 2015, and a candidate who read press coverage of the 2021 reconstitution may have picked up that the Lieutenant Governors were 'special invitees'. Neither doubt survives the notification itself. The safe habit for questions on bodies created by executive resolution is to look for the latest notification rather than the founding document, because the founding document is often out of date within a few years. The Council has continued to meet under the Prime Minister's chairmanship; its eleventh meeting was held on 11 June 2026 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre in New Delhi, on the theme of inclusive human development for a developed India by 2047.

Key facts

The Cabinet Secretariat notification of 19 February 2021 reconstituting the Governing Council opens with 'Chairperson: Prime Minister of India'.
Entry 36 of that composition is the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and entry 37 the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.
The Administrators of Chandigarh, of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and of Lakshadweep are listed separately as special invitees, not as members.
The 2015 notification had only one Lieutenant Governor, that of Andaman and Nicobar Islands; Ladakh became a Union Territory on 31 October 2019.
NITI Aayog was created by a Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 replacing the Planning Commission, and is neither a constitutional nor a statutory body.

The Governing Council as the 2021 notification actually sets it out

Entry 1→Chairperson: Prime Minister of India.

Entries 2 to 4→Ex officio Members of NITI Aayog, the Vice-Chairperson, and the Full-time Members.

Entries 5 to 35→Chief Ministers of every State, and of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry — the three Union Territories with a legislature.

Entries 36 and 37→Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.

Entries 38 and 39→Special invitees — NITI Aayog's own special invitees, and the Administrators of Chandigarh, of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and of Lakshadweep.

The two Lieutenant Governors are in the composition; only the Administrators are special invitees.

Study next

NITI Aayog's full structure — Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, full-time and ex officio members, CEO, Governing CouncilHow NITI Aayog differs from the Planning Commission it replaced, especially on fund allocationUnion Territories with and without a legislature, and who heads eachThe Aspirational Districts and Aspirational Blocks Programmes, and the SDG India IndexOther bodies created by executive resolution rather than statute, and what that implies for their powers

Common traps

Answering from the 2015 formula and forgetting that Ladakh only became a Union Territory in October 2019.
Treating NITI Aayog as a statutory or constitutional body. It rests on a Cabinet resolution.
Confusing members with special invitees. The Administrators of the smaller Union Territories are invitees; the two Lieutenant Governors are not.

As a statements item on composition like this one, as a comparison with the Planning Commission, or through one of NITI Aayog's indices and programmes.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2015_GS1_Q422015Open & attempt →

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

Where the body came from. The same Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 that wound up the Planning Commission created NITI Aayog and, at paragraph 13(b), provided for the Governing Council whose membership this card turns on.

CDS_GK_2023_II_Q212023Open & attempt →

As per the Cabinet Resolution of 1st January, 2015, the NITI Aayog consists of : 1. Prime Minister of India 2. Governing Council comprising of Chief Minister of all the States and Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories 3. Rural Development Minister 4. Chief Executive Officer to be appointed by the Prime Minister Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 1, 2 and 4
(c) 1 and 2 only
(d) 3 and 4 only

Answer(b) 1, 2 and 4

The founding formula, and it carries an official UPSC key. It fixes the Governing Council as Chief Ministers plus Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories — which is exactly the rule that puts Ladakh's Lieutenant Governor on the list once Ladakh became a Union Territory in 2019.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
NITI Aayog was constituted by which one of the following?
- (a)An Act of Parliament
- (b)A Cabinet resolution
- (c)An amendment to the Constitution
- (d)An order of the Supreme Court
Answer(b) A Cabinet resolution — the Government of India resolution of 1 January 2015, which is why NITI Aayog is neither a statutory nor a constitutional body.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following Union Territories is represented on the Governing Council of NITI Aayog by its Chief Minister rather than by a Lieutenant Governor or an Administrator?
- (a)Ladakh
- (b)Lakshadweep
- (c)Puducherry
- (d)Chandigarh
Answer(c) Puducherry — it has a legislature and therefore a Chief Minister, as do Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh is represented by its Lieutenant Governor and the rest by their Administrators.