Daily Briefing: All you need to know about MGNREGA overhaul

On that note, let’s get to the rest of the edition👇

🚨 Big Story

The BJP-led NDA government has planned a major overhaul of the decades-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in a new Bill. The proposed legislation is called the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-GRAM G) Bill, 2025, which will repeal the MGNERG Act, 2005.

The key features of the Bill include:

🔴 It proposes a guarantee of employment for 125 days — higher than MGNERGA’s 100 days
🔴 Unlike MGNREGA, where the Centre pays the wages, the states will have to share the burden under VB-GRAM G
🔴 It proposes a pause in employment guarantee during the peak agricultural season to ensure adequate availability of agricultural labour. This means that beneficiaries will have a smaller window to avail 125 days of employment.

👉 Harikishan Sharma explains all the changes in detail.

Questions: The scheme will likely increase the financial burden on states as they are expected to chip in for wage payments. Among parties that expressed this concern was NDA ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav told The Indian Express that while they will implement the scheme, the sharing of funding is “concerning“.

What’s in a name? The Congress party has questioned why the government plans to erase Mahatama Gandhi’s name from the scheme. However, as my colleagues Lalmani Verma and Vikas Pathak report, the NDA government has long rebranded schemes, laws, projects and ministries. This usually replaces an English name with Hindi or removes names associated with the Nehru-Gandhi family. Read.

Deja vu: Though the proposed changes have sparked Opposition ire, the UPA government had put these issues under focus as well. In fact, Sharad Pawar, then-agriculture minister, and Jairam Ramesh, then-rural development minister, had sparred over pausing the MGNREGA during peak agricultural activity periods.

Also read: From MGNREGA to RAM G — how the government kills a right by John Brittas

⚡Only in Express

Hany Babu M T, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, now lives in a rented home in Kharghar — incidentally, not too far from the Taloja Central jail, where he was lodged for five years before the Bombay High Court granted him bail on December 4. Babu had already spent a long time incarcerated without a trial, which is yet to begin. Babu says that during his time in prison, he often dreamt that he was back teaching at the Delhi University. He was an associate professor in the English Department. Babu speaks to The Indian Express about his time in jail and his plans for life after.

📰 From the Front Page

Charged: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed its chargesheet in connection with the Pahalgam terror attack in a Special NIA Court in Jammu on Monday. Per sources, the over 1,500-page chargesheet establishes the link between the terrorists and Pakistan with two Android phones recovered from an encounter.

Paper trail: Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has, for the first time, responded to a request by the Prime Ministers’ Museum & Library (PMML) to obtain a trove of private papers of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first PM, sources tell The Indian Express. Gandhi has said that her “staff will look into it” as she faces allegations of reclaiming 51 cartons worth of papers from the erstwhile Nehru Memorial Museum & Library.

📌 Must Read

Push comes to a shove: Maoist cadres first came to Madhya Pradesh seeking a haven after the heat turned up against them in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. But by mid-2024, the crackdown intensified in MP as well. What did it take for MP to declare itself Maoist-free a year later? Anand Mohan J traces the anti-Maoist operations — the tip-offs, the chase and the tragedies.

Friends & foes: Elections to 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, including the high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and its neighbouring civic bodies in Thane and Navi Mumbai, will be held on January 15. Congress and Shiv Sena are likely to contest elections independently despite being part of the MVA alliance. The BJP is yet to finalise its seat-sharing arrangement with the Eknath Shinde-led Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP. These shifting alliances, however, are a regular feature of the race to control BMC, the country’s richest civic body. Zeeshan Shaikh tracks the shifting loyalties over the years.

⏳ And Finally…

Have your favourite IPL players been picked yet? They will be up for grabs at the 2026 IPL mini auction, scheduled in the afternoon in Abu Dhabi. As many as 239 Indian and 111 overseas players will go under the hammer with the 10 franchises bidding to fill up a maximum of 77 slots. Check out the purse and wishlist of all the squads here.

The annual IPL auctions are always preceded by mock auctions, where franchises can draw up their plans and backup plans to secure a winning team. But does practice make perfect, or is it just a farce? Venkata Krishna B reports.

🎧 Before you go, don’t forget to tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode. Today’s lineup: Chaos during Messi’s visit, PM Modi’s 3-nation tour, and the anger over an ethanol plant in Rajasthan.

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

Business As Usual by EP Unny