The Government of India has established NITI Aayog to replace the

The correct answer is D) Planning Commission. NITI Aayog was set up by a Cabinet resolution on 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission, which had been created by a Cabinet resolution in 1950. The Planning Commission handed out plan funds and drew up Five Year Plans. NITI Aayog works as a think tank and advises the government, and it works with states on cooperative federalism.

• A) Human Rights Commission: Wrong. The National Human Rights Commission was set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and it continues to function.
• B) Finance Commission: Wrong. It is a constitutional body under Article 280, appointed roughly every five years to recommend the Centre-state division of tax revenue. NITI Aayog has no such role.
• C) Law Commission: Wrong. It is an advisory body on legal reform, constituted by the executive and reconstituted periodically. It was not replaced by NITI Aayog.

The core concept here is institutional change in economic governance. For Mains GS2 (federalism) and GS3 (planning and growth), the shift from centrally directed planning to a think-tank model with state participation is a standard point to be ready to discuss.

Trap: Aspirants sometimes assume NITI Aayog replaced a constitutional body because it is so central to governance. It replaced an executive body, and it does not allocate funds the way the Planning Commission did.