The

National Advisory Council The National Advisory Council (NAC) of India was a unconstitutional body set up by the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to advise the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. Sonia Gandhi served as its chairperson for much of ...

(NAC) of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

was a unconstitutional body set up by the first

United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single party ...

(UPA) government to advise the Prime Minister of India

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

. Sonia Gandhi served as its

chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

for much of the tenure of the UPA. It assists the Institute in achieving and monitoring its mission and goals.

History

The NAC was set up on 4 June 2004 by prime minister

, during the tenure of the first UPA government.

Organization (2010–2014)

The NAC - II consisted of a mix of activists, bureaucrats, economists, politicians and industrialists. * Sonia Gandhi - Chairperson *

Mihir Shah Mihir Shah is an Indian economist and former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India. Education Mihir Shah graduated with a B.A. degree in economics in 1976 from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. In 1978, he received an M.A. degree in ...

- Member, Planning Commission *

Narendra Jadhav Narendra Damodar Jadhav (born 28 May 1953) is an Indian economist, educationist, public policy expert, professor and writer in English, Marathi and Hindi. He is an expert on Babasaheb Ambedkar. Dr. Narendra Jadhav has completed (on 24 April 202 ...

- former bureaucrat & Member, Planning Commission * Ashis Mondal - Director of Action for Social Advancement (ASA), Bhopal * Prof. Pramod Tandon - Vice Chancellor,

North Eastern Hill University North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) is a Central University established on 19 July 1973 by an Act of the Indian Parliament. The university is in the suburb of Shillong, the state capital of Meghalaya, India. The university has two campuses: S ...

Deep Joshi Deep Joshi is an Indian social worker and NGO activist and a recipient of the Magsaysay award in 2009. He is recognised for his leadership in bringing professionalism to the NGO movement in India. He co-founded a non-profit organisation, Profe ...

- social activist *

Farah Naqvi Farah Naqvi is an Indian writer, consultant and activist. A post-graduate from Columbia University, she works on gender and minority rights from both a justice and development perspective. She was a member of the National Advisory Council. She i ...

- social activist *

Dr. N. C. Saxena Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, w ...

- former bureaucrat *

Anu Aga Anu Aga (born 3 August 1942) is an Indian billionaire businesswoman and social worker who led Thermax, an energy and environment engineering business, as its chairperson from 1996 to 2004. She was among the eight richest Indian women, and in 200 ...

- businessperson * A. K. Shiva Kumar - economist *

Mirai Chatterjee Mirai Chatterjee is a leader of the Self-Employed Women's Association, SEWA (India). She joined SEWA in 1984 and was its General Secretary after its Founder, Ela Bhatt. Mirai Chatterjee is currently the Director of the Social Security Team at ...

- Coordinator, SEWA,

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

The members who served on the NAC and later resigned are * Aruna Roy - former bureaucrat * Prof. M.S. Swaminathan - agricultural scientist and MP * Dr. Ram Dayal Munda - MP *

Jean Dreze Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * ...

- development economist *

Harsh Mander Harsh Mander (born 17 April 1955) is an Indian author, columnist, researcher, teacher, and social activist who started the Karwan-e-Mohabbat campaign in solidarity with the victims of communal or religiously motivated violence. He is the Dire ...

- author, columnist, researcher, teacher, and social activist *

Madhav Gadgil Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil (born 24 May 1942) is an Indian ecologist, academic, writer, columnist and the founder of the ''Centre for Ecological Sciences'', a research forum under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Science. He is a former memb ...

- ecologist * Jaya prakash Narayan (Lok Satta)- former bureaucrat

Achievements

The NAC was responsible for the drafting of several key bills passed by both UPA governments, including the

Right to Information Act The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, a ...

Right to Education Act The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for c ...

, Employee Guarantee Act, and the

Food Security Bill The National Food Security Act 2013, also known as Right to Food Act, is an Indian Act of Parliament which aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of the country's 1.2 billion people. It was signed into law on 12 Sep ...

Criticisms

The concept of a NAC has been criticised by opposition parties and some scholars as not being in keeping with India's

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, because of the possibility that it might emerge as an alternative

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

. However an alternative view was that the existence of the NAC could kill the thread of democracy

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

by facilitating greater pre-legislative/pre-policy consultation. The NAC also finalised draft recommendations for a mandatory pre-legislative consultative process which led to believe that constituted members of parliament are less important than some biased bureaucrats. which will literally kill the idea of democracy. It was heavily criticised for drafting the communal violence bill in 2011.R. Jagannathan
"9 reasons why the Communal Violence Bill is itself communal"
''Firstpost'', 30 May 2011. The council ceased to exist when the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

government took office after the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

References

External links

Editorial
in the ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...

'' on NAC.
statement
by George Fernandez, leader of the opposition on the formation of NAC. {{authority control Councils of India Members of National Advisory Council, India Advisory Defunct government departments and agencies of India 2014 disestablishments in India 2004 establishments in Delhi