Under whose Chairmanship was the National Planning Committee set up in 1938?
2023
Under whose Chairmanship was the National Planning Committee set up in 1938?
Answer: C. Jawaharlal Nehru — ConceptWhen a political organisation brings an expert body into existence, two distinct offices are involved and they are ordinarily held by different people.…
- A.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad
- B.
Subhas Chandra Bose
- C.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- D.
More than one of the above
- E.
None of the above
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Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept
When a political organisation brings an expert body into existence, two distinct offices are involved and they are ordinarily held by different people. The office-bearer who convenes the body uses the organisation’s executive authority to call it into existence; the chairman is the person appointed to preside over that body’s sittings and to direct its work.
A question that asks under whose chairmanship a committee was set up is therefore asking for the second office — the presiding officer of the committee itself — and not for the leader whose authority sanctioned its formation.
Application
The National Planning Committee was the Indian National Congress’s first systematic attempt to plan a national economy. It grew out of the Conference of Ministers of Industries held at Delhi in October 1938 on the initiative of Subhas Chandra Bose, the Congress President of that year, and it was formally constituted in 1938.
Jawaharlal Nehru was appointed Chairman of the Committee and directed its work. It had about fifteen members, drew in representatives of the provincial governments and the Indian States, and distributed its enquiry among some twenty-nine sub-committees covering agriculture, industry, power, transport, finance, education and public health. Its work was disrupted when Nehru was imprisoned in 1940 and by the Second World War, and most of its reports were published only after 1948.
Contrast
Leader | Office held in that period | Link with the Committee |
|---|---|---|
Subhas Chandra Bose | Congress President, 1938 and 1939 | Took the initiative that led to the Committee being set up; did not preside over it |
Jawaharlal Nehru | Congress President in 1929, 1936 and 1937 | Appointed Chairman of the National Planning Committee and directed its work |
Dr. Rajendra Prasad | Congress President, 1934 and 1939 | Presided over the Constituent Assembly from December 1946; had no presiding role in this Committee |
The Committee had a single Chairman, so a shared chairmanship does not arise, and that Chairman is one of the leaders named in the question, so the office does not belong to an unlisted fourth person.
Cross-check
The same pairing recurs after independence: when the Planning Commission was created in 1950, its Chairman was again Jawaharlal Nehru, this time as Prime Minister ex officio. The 1938 Committee is the direct forerunner of that body, and Nehru presided over both.
Hence the National Planning Committee set up in 1938 functioned under the chairmanship of Jawaharlal Nehru.