The National Development Council was constituted in which year?

The correct answer is B, 1950. The Planning Commission was constituted on 15 March 1950 by a resolution of the Union Cabinet, with the Prime Minister as its chairman, and it drafted every Five Year Plan until it was replaced in 2015.

Option A, 1947, is the year of Independence and of the partition, not of the commission. Option C, 1952, is the year the National Development Council was set up to associate the states with planning, and it is the commonest distractor in this question. Option D, 1956, is the year of the Industrial Policy Resolution and of the start of the Second Five Year Plan. Note also that the commission was created by an executive resolution and not by the Constitution or by an Act, which is itself asked as a separate statement.

The correct answer is A, 1 January 2015. On that date a cabinet resolution created the National Institution for Transforming India in place of the Planning Commission, keeping the Prime Minister as the head of the new body but changing its work from allocating funds to advising governments.

Option B, 15 March, is the date on which the Planning Commission was set up, though in 1950, so the day is right for the wrong body. Option C, 1 April 2016, is a financial year date with no connection to the creation of the institution. Option D, 26 January 2015, is Republic Day and is offered only to confuse. The pair of years worth fixing is 1950 for the Planning Commission and 2015 for NITI Aayog, with 1952 for the National Development Council between them.

The correct answer is A, P. C. Mahalanobis. The statistician who founded the Indian Statistical Institute gave the Second Plan its framework, in which investment was directed towards heavy and basic industries such as steel, machinery and power on the argument that they would build the capacity to produce everything else.

Option B, Harrod and Domar, gave the model behind the First Plan, which connects the rate of growth to saving and the capital output ratio. Option C, M. Visvesvaraya, wrote Planned Economy for India in 1934 and is the pioneer of the idea, but no plan is based on a model of his. Option D, V. K. R. V. Rao, is remembered for the first scientific estimate of national income in independent India. The First and Second Plan models are the single most repeated pair from this chapter.

The correct answer is B, the Third Plan. The plan of 1961 to 1966 was overwhelmed by the war with China in 1962, the war with Pakistan in 1965 and a severe drought, so instead of a new five year plan the government ran three annual plans from 1966 to 1969, a stretch called the plan holiday.

Option A, the Second Plan, ran its course from 1956 to 1961 and laid the base of heavy industry, despite a foreign exchange crisis. Option C, the Fourth Plan, is the one that began in 1969 after the holiday ended, so it is the result rather than the cause. Option D, the Fifth Plan, was ended a year early in 1978 by a new government and was followed by a rolling plan, which is a different break and a frequent source of confusion.

The correct answer is C, the Fifth Plan. Running from 1974 to 1979, it took the removal of poverty and the attainment of self-reliance as its twin objectives, and it is remembered by the slogan Garibi Hatao. It was terminated a year ahead of schedule in 1978 and a rolling plan was introduced in its place.

Option A, the Third Plan, aimed at a self-reliant and self-generating economy and ended in the plan holiday. Option B, the Fourth Plan, is remembered for the phrase growth with stability and for the nationalisation of major banks in 1969. Option D, the Sixth Plan, continued the attack on poverty and began the move away from rigid controls, which is why it is offered here. Learning one phrase for each plan is the quickest way to clear this family of questions.