Q.Explain any three differences between the Planning Commission and NITI Aayog.

The Planning Commission followed top-down Five-Year Plans and allocated funds; NITI Aayog is a policy think-tank built on cooperative federalism with no fund-allocation power. …

The Planning Commission (1950-2014) and NITI Aayog (2015-present) differ in several important ways:

1. Approach to planning — the Planning Commission followed a top-down approach, drawing up rigid Five-Year Plans with specific physical and financial targets handed down to states. NITI Aayog instead follows a bottom-up approach based on cooperative and competitive federalism, treating states as equal partners in shaping national policy rather than as recipients of centrally fixed targets.

2. Power to allocate funds — the Planning Commission had real financial power: it decided how central plan funds were distributed among states and ministries. NITI Aayog has no such fund-allocation role; that function moved to the Ministry of Finance, leaving NITI Aayog to focus purely on policy formulation, research and monitoring.

3. Institutional structure — the Planning Commission was headed by a Deputy Chairman with full-time appointed members. NITI Aayog's Governing Council includes the Prime Minister (as Chairperson) along with all State Chief Ministers and the Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories, giving states a direct, structural seat at the table. …

Saying NITI Aayog "still allocates funds like the Planning Commission did" — this is a frequently tested factual err …