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UPSC MainsGeneral Studies Paper IIndian EconomyPractice question

Features and Implementation Challenges of VB-GRAMG

Highlight the key features of VB-GRAMG. Discuss the key challenges identified in its implementation.

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How to approach

Begin by briefly introducing the VB-GRAMG Act, 2025 and its primary objective to modernize rural employment and asset creation. Detail the core statutory and institutional features of the scheme. Finally, evaluate the key implementation challenges across fiscal, structural, and technological dimensions before providing a balanced, forward-looking conclusion.

Model answer

273 words

Introduction

The VB-GRAMG Act, 2025 replaces the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), seeking to recalibrate rural wage security with durable asset creation aligned with the Viksit Bharat 2047 roadmap. It transforms traditional rural public works into a structured, productivity-oriented infrastructure framework.

Key Features of VB-GRAMG

  • Enhanced Entitlement: Increases statutory guaranteed unskilled wage employment from 100 to 125 days per rural household annually.
  • Thematic Asset Creation: Restructures works into four national priority domains: Water Security, Core Rural Infrastructure, Livelihood Assets, and Climate Resilience.
  • Agricultural Synergy: Incorporates a mandatory 60-day operational pause during peak agricultural sowing and harvesting seasons to prevent labour distortion and ensure adequate farm labour availability.
  • Digital Planning Architecture: Mandates the integration of grassroots Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans into the national Viksit Bharat Rural Infrastructure Stack via PM Gati Shakti, enforcing geospatial tracking and biometric attendance.

Key Implementation Challenges

  • Dilution of Rights-Based Architecture: Moving away from an open-ended, demand-driven model toward fixed 'normative allocations' capped by the Union government risks supply-side rationing of work during economic distress.
  • Fiscal Strain on States: The revised 60:40 Centre-State cost-sharing formula places significant fiscal pressure on poorer agrarian states with high job demand, potentially leading to implementation bottlenecks and fund-matching shortfalls.
  • Digital Exclusion and Connectivity Gaps: Heavy reliance on technological gateways—including strict biometric verification, micro-ATMs, and automated fraud detection—risks excluding the most vulnerable rural labourers due to rural network deficits and low digital literacy.

Conclusion

While VB-GRAMG represents a paradigm shift from basic safety-net relief toward productivity-linked rural infrastructure development, its long-term viability requires targeted transitional fiscal devolution to poorer states and pragmatic safeguards to ensure digital compliance does not disenfranchise the rural poor.

Key facts to remember

scheme
VB-GRAMG Act, 2025

A statutory successor to MGNREGA designed to provide 125 days of guaranteed unskilled wage employment per rural household, focused on four thematic pillars of durable asset creation.

definition
Viksit Bharat Rural Infrastructure Stack

A digital geospatial planning framework integrated with PM Gati Shakti that synchronises village panchayat plans with national infrastructure priorities.

Frequently asked questions

How does VB-GRAMG address the agricultural labour shortage?

The Act mandates an operational 60-day pause in wage works during peak agricultural sowing and harvesting cycles, preventing competition with private farm operations.

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