<P> The Planning Commission (Hindi: योजना आयोग, Yojana Āyog) was an institution in the Government of India, which formulated India's Five - Year Plans, among other functions . </P> <P> In his first Independence Day speech in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention to dissolve the Planning Commission . It has since been replaced by a new institution named NITI Aayog . </P> <P> Rudimentary economic planning, deriving from the sovereign authority of the state, was first initiated in India in 1938 by Congress President and Indian National Army supreme leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who had been persuaded by Meghnad Saha to set up a National Planning Committee . M. Visvesvaraya had been elected head of the Planning Committee . Meghnad Saha approached the great engineer and requested him to step down . He argued that planning needed a reciprocity between science and politics . M. Visvesvaraya generously agreed and Jawaharlal Nehru was made head of the National Planning Committee. The so - called "British Raj" also formally established Advisory Planning Board under K.C. Neogy that functioned from 1944 to 1946 . Industrialists and economists independently formulated at least three development plans in 2012 . Some scholars have argued that the introduction of planning as an instrument was intended to transcend the ideological divisions between Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru . Other scholars have argued that the Planning Commission, as a central agency in the context of plural democracy in India, needs to carry out more functions than rudimentary economic planning . </P> <P> After India achieved Independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and accordingly the Planning Commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister of India, was established on 15 March 1950, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the Chairman . Authority for creation of the Planning Commission was not derived from the Constitution of India or statute; it is an arm of the Central Government of India . </P>

Who headed the national planning committee of india in 1938