National Development Council

Also called: NDC · Topic: Politics of Planned Development · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The National Development Council (NDC) was a body set up on 6 August 1952 to bring the states into national planning. The Prime Minister chaired it, and its members were the Chief Ministers of all states and the members of the Planning Commission [3]. It gave the final approval to every five-year plan [3].

It matters because the Planning Commission was run from Delhi, and the NDC was the main place where states had a say in the plans. It is often asked about in exams because of its legal status: it was extra-constitutional (no article of the Constitution created it) and non-statutory (no Act of Parliament created it).

Explanation

How it was created and its legal status

• Created by a government order, not by law.
• No article of the Constitution created the NDC. The Constitution does not mention it.
• No Act of Parliament created it either.

• So, like the Planning Commission, it was an extra-constitutional, non-statutory body.

• It came later than the Planning Commission.

• The Planning Commission was set up on 15 March 1950 by a Cabinet Resolution [1].
• The NDC followed on 6 August 1952, after the First Five-Year Plan (1951-52 to 1955-56) had already begun [3].

Who sat on it

• Chair: the Prime Minister.
• Members:
• the Chief Ministers of all states;

• the members of the Planning Commission [3].

• Why this mix mattered:

• The Union side (the PM and the Planning Commission) and the state side (the CMs) met at one table.
• That made the NDC a place where the Union and the states could talk about planning. It did not have the power to make laws.

What it did

• Approved the plans.
• The Planning Commission drafted each five-year plan.

• The NDC gave it final approval [3].

• Gave the states a voice.

• States had to fit their projects into plans made in Delhi.

• The NDC let Chief Ministers speak on those plans [3].

• Worked for balanced growth across regions.

• It aimed to make sure growth did not favour some regions over others [3].

Its limits

• Mostly advisory.
• Its approval had political weight, but it was not a legal power.

• The Union and state governments made the actual decisions and carried them out.

• Little say over money.

• Plan grants to the states were controlled by the Planning Commission under Art. 282 (grants for any public purpose).

• The NDC did not control this money.

• The Union led.

• The PM chaired both the Planning Commission and the NDC.
• So the states had only a limited voice.

In the Constitution and practice

• Place in the Constitution:
• None. No article created the NDC.

• It worked alongside constitutional provisions on Union–state finance:

  • Art. 280: the Finance Commission, a constitutional body that recommends how tax money is shared between the Union and the states.
  • Art. 282: grants for any public purpose, used for plan grants.

• Where its goals came from:

• The 1950 resolution that set up the Planning Commission based planning on the Fundamental Rights (Part III) and the Directive Principles (Part IV).
• It named Art. 39(a), (b) and (c) in particular: an equal right to a livelihood for men and women, material resources used for the common good, and no gathering of wealth in a few hands.

• As the body that approved the plans, the NDC was part of this system.

• In practice:

• 1952: set up on 6 August to bring the states into planning [3].
• It approved the five-year plans, which ran until the Twelfth Plan (2012-17), the last one [4].
• September 2001: the PM chaired its 49th meeting [6]. This shows it kept meeting for decades.

• 1 January 2015: NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) came into force and replaced the 15 March 1950 resolution [2][5].

• Today:

• Most of the NDC's role has passed to the Governing Council of NITI Aayog.
• Its members are the Chief Ministers of all states and the Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories [5].
• NITI Aayog does not make five-year plans, so the NDC's main job of approving plans no longer exists.

Feature	Planning Commission	NDC	NITI Aayog Governing Council
Created	15 March 1950	6 August 1952	With NITI Aayog, 1 January 2015 [2]
How created	Cabinet resolution	Executive order	Cabinet resolution
Chair	PM	PM	PM
States' role	Little	All CMs are members	All CMs and UT Lieutenant Governors are members [5]
Main job	Draft plans and give advice	Approve plans	Shape a shared national agenda

Don't confuse with

• Planning Commission: it drafted the five-year plans. The NDC approved them. The Commission was set up in 1950, and the NDC in 1952.
• Finance Commission: a constitutional body under Art. 280 that recommends how tax money is shared between the Union and the states. The NDC was extra-constitutional and had no power over sharing tax money.
• NITI Aayog Governing Council: it took over most of the NDC's role, but its members also include UT Lieutenant Governors [5], and it does not approve five-year plans.
• Inter-State Council (Art. 263): a body the Constitution provides for, to help the Union and the states work together. The NDC had no basis in the Constitution.

Prelims Hooks

• NDC set up on 6 August 1952. Chair: the PM. Members: all CMs + members of the Planning Commission [3].
• Trap: the NDC was neither constitutional nor statutory. It was created by an executive order, just like the Planning Commission (15 March 1950).
• Which body did what: the Planning Commission drafted the plan, and the NDC gave final approval [3].
• The PM chaired the NDC's 49th meeting in September 2001 [6].
• Its role has passed to the NITI Aayog Governing Council (all CMs + UT Lieutenant Governors). NITI Aayog came into force on 1 January 2015 [2][5].
• Trap: plan grants went through Art. 282 under the Planning Commission. They did not go through the NDC or the Finance Commission (Art. 280).

Mains Points

• NDC and federalism (power shared between the Union and the states):
• The NDC gave states a formal voice in planning. However, the PM chaired it, the plan was drafted in Delhi, and the Planning Commission controlled plan grants under Art. 282.

• So the states' voice was limited. Planning stayed centralised and cut into state autonomy.

• Bodies outside the Constitution with real power:

• Neither the NDC nor the Planning Commission was created by the Constitution or by law. Even so, they approved and shaped national plans.

• This raises the question of how far such bodies can be held accountable to Parliament, which is the same worry behind calling the Planning Commission a 'parallel cabinet'.

• From NDC to NITI Aayog:

• The Governing Council (all CMs + UT Lieutenant Governors) [5] is meant to build cooperative federalism, where the Union and the states work as partners.
• A fair answer should judge whether it gives the states a real role, or simply copies the NDC's limited voice now that there is no plan to approve.

Related concepts

• Planning Commission
• Five-year plan
• Plan and non-plan expenditure

Read more

• The Planning Commission, the NDC and the five-year plan