India has recently enacted the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025, which represents a significant legislative overhaul, effectively replacing the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005. The core premise of the transition, as articulated in an Indian Express article, is the necessity for an honest evaluation of MGNREGA's performance to ensure the new scheme's effectiveness. VB-G RAM G aims to modernize rural employment guarantees, increase accountability, and align job creation with long-term infrastructure and climate resilience goals, in line with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision. Key changes include an increase in the guaranteed workdays from 100 to 125 days per rural household annually. It also introduces a 60-day 'agricultural pause' during peak sowing and harvesting seasons and alters the Centre-State funding ratio for most states from 100% central funding for unskilled wages to a 60:40 cost-sharing model. While Union Ministers and Chief Ministers, such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Yogi Adityanath, hail the VB-G RAM G Act as a milestone for rural development, emphasizing increased employment, timely wage payments, and empowered Gram Sabhas, it has faced significant criticism. Noted economist Jean Dreze, one of MGNREGA's architects, argues that the new Act dilutes the employment guarantee, centralises planning power with the Union government, and shifts a greater financial burden onto states. Critics also express concerns about the potential weakening of workers' rights and the removal of the demand-driven nature of MGNREGA. MGNREGA itself had both notable successes, like providing a safety net and increasing rural wages, and shortcomings such as inter-state inequality in work provision and delays in wage payments, which the new Act aims to address. This ongoing debate highlights the complex challenges and differing perspectives on India's rural employment policy.