G RAM G Bill 'anti village', Modi govt demolished 20 years of MGNREGA in one day: Rahul
New Delhi PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Modi government of demolishing 20 years of MGNREGA in a single day, and dubbed the new VB-G RAM G legislation as “anti village”.
Noting that the VB-G RAM G Bill is not a “revamp” of MGNREGA, Gandhi said in a post on X, “Last night, the Modi government demolished twenty years of MGNREGA in one day.
“It demolishes the rights-based, demand-driven guarantee and turns it into a rationed scheme which is controlled from Delhi. It is anti-state and anti-village by design.”
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also said that MGNREGA gave the rural worker bargaining power.
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“With real options, exploitation and distress migration fell, wages increased, working conditions improved, all while building and reviving rural infrastructure. That leverage is precisely what this government wants to break,” Gandhi alleged.
He said by capping work and creating more ways to deny it, the VB-G RAM G Bill weakens the one instrument the rural poor had.
“We saw what MGNREGA meant during Covid. When the economy shut down and livelihoods collapsed, it kept crores from falling into hunger and debt,” Gandhi claimed.
It helped women the most – year after year, with women contributing more than half the person-days, the Congress leader said.
“When you ration a jobs programme, it is women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless workers and the poorest OBC communities who get pushed out first,” he said.
“To top it all, this law was bulldozed through Parliament without proper scrutiny. The opposition’s demand to send the Bill to a standing committee was rejected. A law that rewires the rural social contract, affecting crores of workers, should never be rammed through without serious committee scrutiny, expert consultation, and public hearings.
“PM Modi's targets are clear: Weaken labour, weaken the leverage of rural India, especially Dalits, OBCs and Adivasis, centralise power, and then sell slogans as reform,” Gandhi said.
Asserting that MGNREGA was among the most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes in the world, he said, “We will not let this government destroy the rural poor's last line of defence. We will stand with workers, panchayats, and states to defeat this move and build a nationwide front to ensure this law is withdrawn.”
Parliament on Thursday night passed the VB-G RAM G Bill that seeks to replace the 20-year-old MGNREGA and guarantees 125 days of rural wage employment every year amid vociferous protests by the opposition.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote late on Thursday night, hours after the Lok Sabha cleared it, amid strong protests by the opposition over the removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the existing rural employment guarantee scheme and accusing the government of putting the financial burden on states.
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Andhra to be developed as knowledge, creator economy hub: CM Naidu
New Delhi/Amaravati (PTI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday said the state is taking steps to transform itself into a knowledge and creator economy hub with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and quantum technology.
He noted that Andhra Pradesh has abundant tech-driven youth and the government is formulating plans to train them in futuristic technologies with support from global technology firms.
"Our goal is to transform Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub by focusing on AI, quantum computing, data centres, drone cities and space cities. The youth will remain our biggest asset over the next 25 years, and we seek global partnerships to scale up the creator economy," said Naidu during his interactions at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Delhi.
Naidu, who participated in the summit in the national capital, also held meetings with several global technology leaders and industrialists to explore collaborations in artificial intelligence, clean energy and innovation ecosystems.
He met Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Autodesk AI Head Mike Haley, Aramco India Director Abdul Rehman AiThukair, LEGO Education Vice President Tom Hall, Aadhaar Founder and CTO Srikanth Nadhamuni, Khosla Ventures Managing Partner Vinod Khosla and others at the AP Pavilion.
The chief minister also held discussions with Saudi Aramco representatives on clean energy projects, including solar initiatives, and invited the company to expand operations in Andhra Pradesh, stating that the state is highly suitable for green energy production.
He sought support from NVIDIA Vice President Callista Redmond for establishing AI Living Labs and proposed partnerships through the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub to promote youth innovation, including collaborations with IIT Tirupati and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati under the Andhra Pradesh Future Innovation and Research for Science and Technology (AP FIRST) initiative.
Naidu urged Autodesk leadership to support the development of Global Capability Centres in design engineering and requested the establishment of an Innovation Academy in Amaravati aligned with quantum technology, besides proposing AI and robotics learning labs in partnership with LEGO Education.
He also discussed AI-driven smart governance solutions with Quantela Inc Chairman Sridhar Gadhi, while World Bank Group Digital AI Regional Director Mahesh Uttamchandani met Naidu on the sidelines of the summit.
Following the meetings, Naidu visited various exhibition stalls at the summit, including those of NVIDIA, Tata, Intel and Microsoft, and reviewed AI applications across agriculture, healthcare and industry.
