The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, which was passed by Parliament within two days of its introduction on December 16 last year, has several steps to clear before it can be implemented. The new rural employment legislation replaces the Congress-led UPA government’s flagship scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA).

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According to sources, the Union Ministry of Rural Development is holding weekly consultation meetings with State Governments. There are several tricky issues that the Centre must navigate, including a formula for “normative allocation” for the States. Section 4(5) of the legislation says, “The Central government shall determine the state-wise normative allocation for each financial year, based on objective parameters as may be prescribed by the Central government.” This clause is intended to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources, following complaints from several economically weaker States that they receive a smaller proportion of funds. These objective parameters are yet to be finalised.

“Several State governments that were among the best performers under MGNREGA argue that the objective parameters should also take into account their past performance, while other States contend that the parameters should reflect the demand in a State, especially in those with high rates of migration of rural workers,” a senior official of the Ministry of Rural Development said.

The legislation requires that all Gram Panchayats be categorised as A, B, or C, based on development parameters. The Act cites only one example — “proximity to urban areas” — of what these “development parameters” could entail. The Centre, currently in consultation with the States, is working on framing these parameters. This categorisation, as the Act states, is meant to address the “varying needs of the Panchayats”.

For the scheme to roll out, State governments must have at least five basic elements in place, a top official said. These include ensuring that ongoing work under the old legislation — MGNREGA — is completed. Second, the States must enrol themselves on DBT Sparsh, a banking platform. For the first time since the launch of the rural employment scheme, the Centre and the States will share the financial burden. West Bengal has not yet enrolled on the platform, according to sources. Third, the ongoing drive to conduct e‑Know Your Customer (EKYC)verification of MGNREGA job cards must be completed. At present, 83% of active workers — defined as anyone who has worked at least once under the programme in the past three years — have completed eKYC. These eKYC-enabled job cards, the senior official said, will continue to be valid under the VB‑G RAM G Act until the government replaces them with a smart card. Finally, State governments must onboard Yuktdhara, a geospatial planning portal that the Centre wants used for preparing the Viksit Gram Panchayat plan, which will function like a master schedule of all works planned for the year.

The Centre also has to frame rules under eleven categories, for example on social audit of the scheme.

Sources indicated that the new legislation may not be ready for rollout by April 1 this year. From the day the new Act is notified by the Centre — which will be treated as the commencement date — the State governments will have six months to implement the scheme.

The Union Budget earmarked ₹95,692.31 crore for VB‑GRAM G and ₹30,000 crore for MGNREGS, taking the combined allocation for the two rural employment heads to ₹1,25,692.31 crore. The government has projected this as a 43% increase over the Revised Estimate of ₹88,000 crore for MGNREGS in 2025‑26. 

The Rural Development Ministry said a logo design competition for the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-G RAM G) has been launched.

The competition is live on the government’s citizen engagement platform, MyGov. The Ministry said in a post on X on Saturday (March 7, 2026), inviting people to submit creative designs reflecting the vision of rural development and employment generation.

The Ministry said it seeks to promote public participation in branding the programme, which is a key pillar of the government’s rural development strategy aligned with the vision of “Viksit Bharat 2047”.

The last date for submitting entries is March 20, and the winner will receive a cash prize of ₹50,000.

In a post on X, the Ministry said the logo should reflect the vision of a developed India.

According to details shared on the MyGov portal, the selected design will be adopted by the ministry for official and promotional use related to the Act and associated programmes. The competition seeks original logos that symbolise employment generation, livelihood enhancement and inclusive rural growth.

The Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 and provides a statutory guarantee of up to 125 days of wage employment in a financial year to rural households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work.

Activists and opposition parties have criticised the VB G-RAM-G scheme, alleging that it weakens the rights-based framework of MGNREGA, may dilute the legal guarantee of work, and have also alleged that the new scheme is more centralised than MGNREGA, which was drafted after widespread consultations.

The government has meanwhile claimed that the new Act will further strengthen the rural employment guarantee by providing 125 days of work, compared to the 100 days provided under MGNREGA.

The government has also said the new framework aims to strengthen rural livelihoods, improve accountability and link employment generation with the creation of durable rural infrastructure and other development outcomes.

With the Union Budget approaching, Nobel Laureate and economist Abhijit Banerjee has called for a pause in what he described as the relentless cycle of Budget-to-Budget governance, arguing that this may be the right time to rethink how the government itself is organised.

Speaking to The Hindu at the Hyderabad Literary Festival 2026, Mr. Banerjee said the country needs to take a pause and not think of the Budget but how to organise the government to be more effective. He observed that public discourse and policymaking are constantly driven by the next Budget or the next election. He suggested that instead of focusing solely on annual allocations, the government could use a year to attempt innovative changes, such as placing greater emphasis on urban decentralisation.

“We are always on this time schedule from one Budget to the other and then there is one election to the other,” he said, adding that the period between the previous and next general elections provides an opportunity to step back and consider structural reforms.

On the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, he cautioned against drawing conclusions too early. “A key concern is that reducing the federal share of spending in certain programmes could mean inequality across States. Poorer States may end up with less money and consequently, spend less,” he warned.

He pointed out that even some State governments led by the ruling party have pushed back against the proposed changes. He maintained that it would be premature to treat the proposal as final. There remains space for negotiation as the political process unfolds, he asserted.

Speaking about his book ‘Chhaunk: On Food, Economics and Society’, Mr. Banerjee highlighted India’s continuing struggle with malnutrition. He noted that India remains home to one of the world’s largest malnourished and stunted populations. “The underlying issue is protein deficiency in diets,” he said, pointing to political debates over providing eggs in school meals as an example. Eggs, he said, are a cheap and effective source of protein, yet their inclusion in school nutrition programmes often becomes contentious.