The Development, Monitoring and Evaluation Office, which monitors the progress of long-term policies, is an attached office under
- (a)Prime Minister's Office
- (b)Ministry of Home Affairs
- (c)Cabinet Secretariat
- (d)NITI Aayog
Correct — D, NITI Aayog. The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) is an attached office of NITI Aayog. It was constituted in September 2015 by merging the erstwhile Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). Its mandate is to monitor and evaluate the implementation, outcomes and impact of government programmes and policies — fitting NITI Aayog's role as the government's premier policy think-tank (which replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015).
- (a)Prime Minister's Office — The PMO supports the Prime Minister directly; the dedicated programme monitoring-and-evaluation body (DMEO) is attached to NITI Aayog, not the PMO.
- (b)Ministry of Home Affairs — The MHA handles internal security, centre-state relations and administration; policy monitoring and evaluation of development programmes is not its function.
- (c)Cabinet Secretariat — The Cabinet Secretariat provides secretarial support to the Cabinet and coordinates among ministries; DMEO is an office of NITI Aayog, not the Cabinet Secretariat.
NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), set up on 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission, is the Centre's apex public-policy think-tank. Its evaluation wing is the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), an attached office created in 2015 by merging the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). DMEO tracks how well government schemes and long-term policies are implemented and what outcomes they deliver.
The reasoning cue is 'monitors the progress of long-term policies' — evaluating policy outcomes is a NITI Aayog function (it does monitoring, evaluation and the SDG India Index). The PMO, MHA and Cabinet Secretariat are executive/coordination bodies, not policy-evaluation shops, so DMEO logically sits under NITI Aayog.
- DMEO = Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, an attached office of NITI Aayog.
- Formed in September 2015 by merging the PEO and the IEO.
- NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015.
- DMEO's job is monitoring and evaluation of government programmes/policies.
- Planning Commission (till 2014)
- NITI Aayog (from 1 Jan 2015)
- DMEO — attached office (monitoring & evaluation)
DMEO (merger of PEO + IEO, 2015) is an attached office of NITI Aayog — answer (d).
- Assuming any 'monitoring' body must sit under the PMO or Cabinet Secretariat.
- Confusing DMEO with the Statistics Ministry's (MoSPI) programme-implementation monitoring.
UPSC/UPPSC ask 'which body/office is under NITI Aayog' or contrast NITI Aayog with the Planning Commission; know NITI Aayog's attached offices and indices.
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 — NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015.
Tests the SAME institution — NITI Aayog. This UPPSC item asks about DMEO (NITI Aayog's monitoring-and-evaluation office); the UPSC item asks what NITI Aayog replaced (the Planning Commission).
- practice — not a real PYQ
NITI Aayog replaced which of the following bodies?
- (a)Finance Commission
- (b)Planning Commission
- (c)National Development Council
- (d)Law Commission
Answer(b) Planning Commission — NITI Aayog was set up on 1 January 2015 in its place.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) was formed by merging which two bodies?
- (a)PEO and IEO
- (b)NSSO and CSO
- (c)CAG and CAT
- (d)PEO and NSSO
Answer(a) PEO and IEO — the Programme Evaluation Organisation and the Independent Evaluation Office were merged into DMEO in 2015.