The National Development Council (NDC) or Rashtriya Vikas Parishad is the apex body for decision creating and deliberations on development matters in India, presided over by the Prime Minister. It was set up on 6 August 1952 to strengthen and mobilize the effort and resources of the nation in support of the Five Year Plans made by Planning Commission, to promote common economic policies in all vital spheres, and to ensure the balanced and rapid development of all parts of the country. The Council comprises the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers of all States or their substitutes, representatives of the Union Territories and the members of the NITI Aayog (erstwhile Planning Commission). NDC (National Development Council) has been proposed to be abolished. But till date no resolution has been passed to abolish it. Since the inception of NITI Aayog's Governing Council (which has almost the same composition and roles as NDC), the NDC has had no work assigned to it nor did it have any meetings. During the tenure of former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh it was felt that Planning Commission has outlived its life and needs some reform. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Planning Commission's abolition and created NITI Aayog through an executive resolution.↵It is neither a constitutional body nor a statutory body.. History The first meeting was chaired by Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru on 8–9 November 1952. So far 57 meetings had been held. The 57th Meeting of National Development Council was held on 27 December 2012 at Vidhan Bhavan, Mumbai. Objectives It has been set up with the following objectives to strengthen and mobilise the effort and resources of the nation in support of the Plan to promote common economic policies in all vital spheres and to ensure the balanced and rapid development of all parts of the country to provide social amenities like education, medical care, social services, etc. to the citizens of the country to improve in living standard of the people to increase in per capita income Functions The functions of the Council are to prescribe guidelines for the formulation of the National Plan, including the assessment of resources for the Plan; to consider the National Plan as formulated by the NITI Aayog; to make an assessment of the resources that are required for implementing the Plan and to suggest measures for augmenting them. To