Key Terms & Concepts — UPSC Mains
VB-G RAM G
"The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, is the statutory rural employment law that replaces MGNREGA from July 1, 2026, raising the wage-employment guarantee to 125 days per rural household."
VB-G RAM G stands for the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025. It repeals the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) and comes into force across the country from July 1, 2026, with MGNREGA standing repealed from that date. The Act raises the guaranteed days of wage employment from 100 to 125 days per rural household per financial year and reorganises rural works under four thematic focus areas, namely Water Security, Core Rural Infrastructure, Rural Livelihoods, and Special Works for Mitigation of Extreme Weather Events. Ahead of commencement, the Department of Rural Development notified an interim list of 318 permissible works to operationalise the convergence framework. The Act is administered by the Ministry of Rural Development and frames a climate-resilience and disaster-preparedness dimension as a core statutory objective rather than an optional add-on.
Maps to GS2 (welfare schemes, social-sector legislation) and GS3 (rural employment, livelihoods, climate resilience). Prelims: full form, year of enactment, commencement date of July 1, 2026, the 100 to 125 day jump, the four thematic areas, the 318 permissible works, and the administering ministry. Mains: evaluate the shift from a demand-driven Right to Work model to a normative-allocation framework, and the integration of extreme-weather mitigation into a rural employment guarantee.
- 1 Full form: Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, abbreviated VB-G RAM G.
- 2 Commences across the country from July 1, 2026.
- 3 Repeals the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), which stands repealed from the same date.
- 4 Raises the guaranteed wage employment from 100 to 125 days per rural household per financial year.
- 5 Four thematic focus areas: Water Security; Core Rural Infrastructure; Rural Livelihoods; Special Works for Mitigation of Extreme Weather Events.
- 6 The Department of Rural Development notified an interim list of 318 permissible works ahead of commencement.
- 7 Administered by the Ministry of Rural Development.
- 8 Integrates climate resilience and disaster preparedness as a statutory objective, with extreme-weather mitigation as a dedicated work category.
When a Gram Panchayat builds a check dam under the Water Security theme after July 1, 2026, the work is sanctioned from the 318 permissible works list and the worker can claim up to 125 days of guaranteed wage employment in that financial year under VB-G RAM G.
