How many of the following were established as per the provisions of the Constitution of India? The Inter-State Council? The National Security Council? [2025]

With reference to India, consider the following:

The Inter-State Council is a Constitutional body. Article 263 contemplates the establishment of an Inter-State Council to effect coordination between the states and between Centre and states.

The Sarkaria Commission (1983–87) recommended the establishment of a permanent Inter-State Council under Article 263.
Acting on this, the V.P. Singh-led Janata Dal Government established the Inter-State Council in 1990.
It consists of the following members:
- Prime minister as the Chairman
- Chief ministers of all the states
- Chief ministers of union territories having legislative assemblies
- Administrators of union territories not having legislative assemblies
- Governors of States under President’s rule
- Six Central cabinet ministers, including the home minister, to be nominated by the Prime Minister. Five Ministers of Cabinet rank / Minister of State (independent charge) nominated by the Chairman of the Council (i.e., Prime Minister) are permanent invitees to the Council.

The National Security Council (NSC) of India is a three-tiered organisation that oversees political, economic, energy and security issues of strategic concern. It was set up by the Vajpayee government (an executive (non-constitutional, non-statutory body) in 1998 following the nuclear tests by India & Pakistan. Before that, national security functions were carried out by the Principal Secretary to the PM. It operates within the executive office of the Prime Minister of India, liaising between the government’s executive branch and the intelligence services, advising leadership on intelligence and security issues.
Members: National Security Advisor (NSA), the Deputy and Additional National Security Advisors, the Ministers of Defence, External Affairs, Home, Finance of the Government of India, and the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog. The military has no representation in this tier.
The NSC is headed by the Prime Minister. The National Security Adviser (NSA) acts as the secretary of the NSC. (Brajesh Mishra was the first NSA).
Headquarters: New Delhi
Its primary objective is to provide authoritative and holistic assessments of India’s security challenges across military, internal security, economic, technological, and external relations domains.

They are established under States Reorganisation Act, 1956 as statutory (extra-constitutional) advisory bodies.

Zonal Councils