Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

The Government of India and the New Development Bank (NDB) signed a loan agreement for lending $1,000 million for ‘supporting India’s economic recovery from COVID-19’ by supporting expenditures on rural infrastructure related to natural resource management (NRM) and rural employment generation under Government of India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

 The programme will support Government to enable economic recovery in the rural areas through Natural Resource Management (NRM) works.

The programme proposes creation of durable rural infrastructure assets relating to NRM and generation of employment opportunities for rural poor, especially migrant workers who have returned from urban areas and have lost their livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $1 billion loan from the NDB has a tenor of 30 years, including a 5-year grace period.

The NDB was established based on the Inter-Governmental agreement among the BRICS countries (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa) signed in 2014.

The purpose of the Bank is to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging market economies and developing countries.