The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, also called VB-G RAM G Act, came into force across rural India on 1 July 2026. It officially replaced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, restructuring the rural wage employment guarantee system under a new legal framework.

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• VB-G RAM G Act came into force on 1 July 2026 across rural India, replacing MGNREGA which earlier provided 100 days of guaranteed wage employment under a statutory framework
• The new law increases guaranteed wage employment from 100 days to 125 days per financial year for eligible rural households under the central employment guarantee system
• The scheme continues to operate under a Parliament-enacted legal structure ensuring wage employment as a statutory right for rural households in India
• Ministry of Rural Development revised wage rates on 30 June 2026, increasing the national average daily wage from ₹298.8 under MGNREGA to ₹327.4 under VB-G RAM G
• An interim wage floor of ₹300 per day has been set from 1 July 2026 ensuring no state-notified wage rate falls below this minimum benchmark level
• The total interim allocation for states and Union Territories is ₹95,692.31 crore to support transition costs, wage payments, and system migration requirements
• Funding pattern under the scheme remains 60:40 between Centre and most states, while North-Eastern and Himalayan states follow a 90:10 funding ratio model
• Existing e-KYC verified MGNREGA job cards remain valid temporarily until Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Cards are issued and full data migration is completed
• Around 29 states and Union Territories have made budget provisions while nearly two dozen have issued required notifications for implementation readiness
• Full transition to the new system is expected to take around six months with complete data migration scheduled to continue until 31 December 2026