November 1948: Ambedkar presents Draft Constitution, Indian Constitution-Making Shifts into High Gear.

• 4th November 1948 was a critical date in India’s constitution-making process: B.R. Ambedkar, Drafting Committee Chairman, formally introduced the Draft Constitution in the constituent Assembly. This document, containing 315 Articles and 8 Schedules, was the culmination of the Assembly’s work, particularly its committees, that began on 9th December 1946.
• From this point onwards, all of the Assembly’s debates  centred around this Draft. These debates mark the most intense phase of Indian constitution-making.
• While introducing the Draft, Ambedkar made a long and comprehensive speech that would become famous in post-independent India.
• He provided the Assembly with an overview of India’s constitutional architecture, its important features, and principles that informed various provisions. It was in this speech that Ambedkar for the first time used the term ‘constitutional morality’ – which has, in recent years, been widely invoked by academics, activists, journalists, and the legal community.
• In the days that followed the introduction of the Draft, Assembly members expressed their preliminary impressions of the document and engaged with Ambedkar’s speech. While some were broadly satisfied, others were not.
• In the days that followed, a group of Assembly members took turns to rebuke Ambedkar.
• After around 10 days of general discussions on the Draft, the Assembly on 15th November 1948 began a more focused exercise of debating and considering amendments around each Article of the Draft Constitution – a process that would go on till 17th October 1948. The Assembly finally adopted the Constitution on 26th November 1949.

Hence, Option A is Correct.

General elections were held in India between 25 October 1951 and 21 February 1952. India attained independence on 15 August 1947 and set up an Election Commission two years later.

• India is the land of law. Democracy prevails here, and leaders are elected through democratic ways. On this day in 1951, general elections were held in India for the first time in 68 phases.
• It was held between October 25 1951 to February 1952. Continue reading to find out all about India’s first general elections.
• There were nearly 1874 candidates and 53 political parties, of which 14 were ‌national. These included the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India, the Socialist Party, the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, and Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, among others.
• The parties were contesting for 489 seats. The Indian National Congress won a thumping majority with 364 seats and 45% of the total votes polled. The Communist Party of India, which won a total of 16 seats, became the main opposition party.
• Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru became Independent India’s first democratically elected prime minister.
• Despite attaining Independence on August 15, 1947, the first election took place only in 1951. For the years in between, India was a constitutional monarchy under King George VI, with Louis Mountbatten as the Governor-General.
• The Jawahar Lal Nehru-led Constituent Assembly was serving as the Parliament in the wait for the first elected government to take charge.
• While the nation’s leaders started working on rolling out elections in July 1948, there were no laws on how to hold elections.

Hence, Option A is correct.

The Planning Commission was an institution which formulated Five-Year Plans in India. Planning Commission set up in 1950. Planning commission was established based on the recommendation of an advisory planning board under the chairmanship of KC Neogy.

• Planning Commission of India was a non-constitutional and non-statutory body, which was responsible to formulate India’s five years plans for social and economic development in India.
• Prime minister of India is the Ex-officio chairman of the planning commission. It was established on 15 March, 1950 in accordance with article 39 of the constitution which is a part of directive principles of state policy.

Planning Commission of India:

1. It is an extra-constitutional body.
2. It is an advisory body to the Government of India on an array of issues of economic development.
3. It is a “think tank” on economic development with the Prime Minister as its ex-officio Chairman and with the provision of a Deputy Chairman. The main function of the Deputy Commissioner was to coordinate the work of the commission.
4. It had an open provision for the number of its members other than Six Union Cabinet Ministers as its ex-officio members and a Member Secretary. The minister of Planning is already an ex-officio member of the PC.
5. The Planning Commission is chaired by the Prime Minister of India, and Jawaharlal Nehru was the first chairman of the Planning Commission.
6. Planning Commission is seated at the “Yojana Bhavan”, New Delhi. The commission had a staff of secretaries and advisers, and also a research organization.
7. The planning commission was a technical body with experts and professionals coming from an array of specific areas as per the need of planning.

Hence, Option A is Correct.