The Union Ministry of Rural Development today issued a series of draft rules under Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), signalling the Centre’s move towards institutionalising a new framework for rural employment, governance, digital wage payments and financial accountability across states and UTs.Broadly, the draft notifications lay down the proposed operational structure for the rural employment mission, popularly referred to as “VB–G RAM G”. It is the new version of MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), which provided 100 days of assured rural jobs and income.The Centre has invited objections and suggestions from stakeholders within 30 days before finalising the rules. A key proposal relates to the constitution of a Central Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Council, which will function as the apex monitoring and advisory body for the scheme.The council is proposed to be chaired ex-officio by the Union Rural Development Minister, with the Minister of State for Rural Development serving as Vice-Chairperson. Senior representatives from multiple ministries, including Agriculture, Environment, Panchayati Raj, Labour and Jal Shakti, and NITI Aayog will also be part of the body.The proposed council will additionally include representatives from state governments, panchayati raj institutions, workers’ organisations and disadvantaged groups, with a mandatory provision that at least one-third of non-official members be women. Experts in areas such as water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood, social audit, information technology and disaster mitigation are also proposed to be inducted.The draft rules further emphasise a fully digital payment ecosystem for wages and unemployment allowances under the mission. All payments are proposed to be routed through direct benefit transfer (DBT) directly into beneficiaries’ bank or post office accounts, with cash payments barred except in extraordinary circumstances approved by the Centre.The framework also proposes Aadhaar-based authentication systems and electronic processing of payments through a dedicated Management Information System (MIS), reflecting the government’s broader emphasis on transparency, digital governance and leak-proof delivery mechanisms.In another significant provision, the Centre has proposed a funding-sharing pattern of 90:10 for northeastern and Himalayan states, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, while all other states and UTs with legislatures would follow a 60:40 sharing model. The UTs without legislatures will receive full funding support from the Centre.The draft rules also place financial responsibility on the states for any expenditure exceeding the “normative allocation” fixed annually by the Centre. All such expenditure would have to be recorded through a designated MIS for audit, transparency and monitoring purposes.The notifications indicate that the Centre is attempting to build a technology-driven rural employment architecture with tighter financial controls, institutional monitoring and broader stakeholder participation. However, the final contours of the mission will emerge only after the consultation process concludes and the rules are formally notified.The Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on January 29 this year had said that the government had brought in the VB-G RAM G scheme after notable trends of decline in work demand under MGNREGS.Person days under the MNREGS declined from the Covid-19 peak of 389.09 crore in FY21 to 183.77 crore up to December 31, 2025. This is an over 53 per cent fall, which also coincided with the reduction in rural unemployment–from 3.3 per cent in 2020-21 to 2.5 per cent in 2023-24–suggesting that many rural households may be accessing non-farm or other non-MGNREGS work.The new scheme promises 125 days of guaranteed income but changes the funding pattern. Under MGNREGS, the Centre bore 100 per cent of unskilled manual labour costs and 75 per cent of material and skilled/semi-skilled worker costs while states contributed 25 per cent of material and skilled labour costs and unemployment allowances if required.Many states where opposition parties are in power have objected to altered funding structures, but the Centre says the move will improve state’s accountability.