The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), an attached office of NITI Aayog, was constituted in:

The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) was constituted on 18 September 2015 as an attached office of NITI Aayog.

How DMEO was formed:

It was created by merging two earlier bodies:

• The "Programme Evaluation Organisation" (PEO), set up in 1952 under the Planning Commission to evaluate development programmes.
• The "Independent Evaluation Office" (IEO), set up in 2014.

Its role:

• It monitors the implementation of government programmes and schemes, and evaluates their results and impact.
• It helps the government use evidence and data to design and improve policies ("evidence-based policy-making").
• It evaluates centrally sponsored schemes and central sector schemes, and gives recommendations on whether they should continue.
• It developed the "Output-Outcome Monitoring Framework", which tracks the outputs and outcomes of schemes against targets, linked with the Union Budget.
• It also prepares indices and reports, such as the "Data Governance Quality Index" for ministries.
• It works with the ministries and departments of the Union Government and with the states.
• Its head is called the Director General.

About NITI Aayog:

• It replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015.
• "NITI" stands for "National Institution for Transforming India".
• It is a policy think tank of the government; its Chairperson is the Prime Minister.
• It works on cooperative federalism, the "Aspirational Districts Programme", the SDG India Index, and other initiatives.

Why not the other options?

• ✗NITI Aayog itself was set up in January 2015.
• ✗March 2017 and August 2019 are not related to the formation of DMEO.