The new rural employment framework, set to take effect July 1 under the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act 2025, did not materialize from thin air. It emerged from a specific problem: how to get 18 different ministries, each with its own schemes and funding streams, to stop working in silos and start building the same things in the same villages. On Wednesday, Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal chaired a high-level inter-ministerial consultation on the draft convergence framework.
Representatives and nodal officers from 18 ministries and departments attended. Kansal stressed that convergence is a core pillar of the VB – G RAM G Act.
He argued it is essential for addressing interconnected rural development priorities — water security, livelihoods, infrastructure, climate resilience, and local economic development. These are not separate issues in a village. A lack of water kills crops and livelihoods.
Bad roads keep markets out of reach. No one ministry fixes all of that alone.
The government has now notified an interim list of 318 permissible development works under the new framework. These works are organized around four thematic focus areas: water security, core rural infrastructure, rural livelihoods, and special works for mitigation of extreme weather events. The list covers natural resource management, irrigation, rural connectivity, community infrastructure, livelihood-supporting assets, climate resilience, and disaster preparedness.
That is a wide net, but it is not meant to be the final word. The Ministry of Rural Development has shared the list with states and other ministries. Officials said they have asked for their views so that more works can be added going forward, based on requirements specific to certain areas.
This is the key mechanism: the framework is supposed to be responsive, not rigid. Different schemes and programmes can work towards common development outcomes while retaining their respective mandates and funding structures.
That is the bureaucratic balancing act at the heart of the whole exercise. At the centre of the framework is the Viksit G. It aims to provide a single plan with multi funding approach.
Short-term goals are part of the package, though the report does not specify what they are. The idea is straightforward: instead of a village getting a road from one ministry, a pond from another, and a community center from a third, with no one coordinating timelines or locations, there is one plan.
Money comes from multiple sources, but the work is coherent. This matters now because rural India faces a convergence of crises. Water tables are falling.
Extreme weather events — floods, droughts, cyclones — are becoming more frequent. Rural infrastructure remains patchy. The old employment guarantee, MGNREGA, provided work but often produced fragmented assets.
The new act attempts to build on that foundation, but with a sharper focus on outcomes that last. The interim list of 318 works is just the start.
It is a negotiating document, really. States will push for their own priorities. Ministries will guard their turf.
The consultation on Wednesday was one step in a long process of alignment. Kansal made clear that convergence is not optional under the new act.
It is the whole point.
Sources
- Secretary, Rural Development Chairs High-Level Inter-Ministerial …
- Secretary, Rural Development Chairs High-Level Inter …
