The Planning Commission of India was set up on:

The Planning Commission was set up on 15 March 1950 by a resolution of the Government of India.

Nature of the Planning Commission:

• It was neither a constitutional nor a statutory body; it was an extra-constitutional, non-statutory body created by an executive resolution.
• It was an advisory body to the government on planning.

Composition:

• The Prime Minister was its ex officio Chairman.
• The Deputy Chairman was the de facto executive head, with the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
• It had full-time members who were experts in various fields.
• Gulzarilal Nanda was the first Deputy Chairman.

Functions:

• To assess the material, capital and human resources of the country.
• To formulate Five Year Plans for the most effective and balanced use of resources.
• To determine priorities and allocate resources.
• To appraise the progress of plans.

Five Year Plans:

• The First Five Year Plan (1951 to 1956) focused on agriculture and irrigation, based on the Harrod-Domar model.
• The Second Five Year Plan (1956 to 1961), based on the Mahalanobis model, focused on heavy industry.
• India had twelve Five Year Plans, the last from 2012 to 2017.

National Development Council (NDC):

• It was set up in 1952 to involve states in the planning process and approve plans.
• It consisted of the Prime Minister, Union Cabinet ministers and Chief Ministers.

Replacement:

On 1 January 2015, the Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog.

Constitutional basis for planning:

"Economic and social planning" is a subject in the Concurrent List.

Origin of the idea:

The National Planning Committee (1938) of the Congress, chaired by Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Bombay Plan (1944) prepared by industrialists were early planning efforts.

Why not the other options?

• ✗26 November 1949 is when the Constitution was adopted.
• ✗1 April 1951 is when the First Five Year Plan began.
• ✗15 August 1950 does not match.