Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI), the apex body of qualified Town and Country Planners, was established in 1951; is totally committed to promote planned, economic, scientific and artistic development of towns, cities and rural areas besides fostering town and country planning education and planning research. The institute owes its origin to a small group of dedicated town planners, who, in 1947, decided to set up a professional Town Planning Institute on the lines of the Royal Town Planning Institute, London. As the planners, numbered only six then, a registered society could not be set up. Therefore, this small group formed itself into an Indian Board of Town Planners, which after three years of continuous work formed the Institute of Town Planners, India with members numbering only fifteen.