Dubai, Dec 21: India faltered against the big-hitting Sameer Minhas and the extra zip of pacers, suffering a massive 191-run defeat against Pakistan in a one-sided 50-over Under-19 Asia Cup final, here Sunday.

Pakistan lifted their second U19 Asia Cup, and as it is the norm now, there was no formal greetings between the players of two teams.

Once Pakistan posted a mammoth 347 for eight, riding on Minhas’ 172 (113b, 17×4, 9×6) they needed a lion-hearted chase to clinch a ninth title in the tournament.

But the tall Pakistan pace troika — Ali Reza (4/42), Mohammad Sayyam (2/38) and Abdul Subhan (2/29) — hurried their top-order with consistent hard-lengths as India folded for 156 in 26.2 overs.

However, India’s chase began on an explosive note despite losing Ayush Mhatre early. Vaibhav Suryavanshi hammered Raza for two sixes and a four to take 21 runs in the first over.

Aaron George too began brightly, caressing Sayyam for three fours in a row in the fourth over as India raced off the block at 10 runs an over.

But the game’s course changed in the last ball of the fourth over. George was jostled into a pull by Sayyam, and all he could do was to sky the short-pitched ball to Mohammad Shayan inside the circle.

In the first ball of the fifth over, India suffered a body blow with the dismissal of Suryavanshi.

The left-hander went for a full-blooded pick-up shot off Raza, but the good-length ball, which had extra bounce on it, took the edge of the opener’s bat and nestled in the gloves of stumper Zahoor Hamza.

Raza and Pakistan fielders celebrated wildly, and a few words were exchanged before Suryavanshi trudged off dejected.

India slipped from 49 for 1 to 49 for three in the space of two balls, and it was just the beginning.

Vedant Trivedi and Kanishk Chouhan too fell to snorters as Pakistan pacers made the flat ICC Academy pitch look like the Road of Bones.

India’s last hope — even if feeble — was the presence of Abhigyan Kundu, and a drop on 12 off Subhan hinted at a possible shifting of fortune.

But all such hopes were trampled when Kundu’s upper cut two balls later after his reprieve found Niqab Shafiq at third man.

Earlier, Pakistan opener Minhas struck a brilliant century as Pakistan motored to a humongous total.

Minhas, the younger brother of Pakistan T20 player Arafat, went after every Indian bowler but was especially harsh on new-ball bowlers Kishan Singh and Deepesh Devendran.

Minhas brought up his century off 71 balls with a four in the 29th over off Devendran.

This was Minhas’ second hundred in the competition having cracked an unbeaten 177 against Malaysia in the opening group match.

Minhas’ six in the 28th over, where he used his feet to launch a Mhatre delivery high up in the air to deep mid-wicket, had class written all over it.

The 19-year-old looked set for a double century but he was tricked by a slower delivery from Devendran (3/83) to be caught at mid-on.

It was smooth sailing for Pakistan after Hamza Zahoor (18) departed early.

Zahoor’s dismissal brought in Usman Khan (35) and, together with Minhas, took the total to 123 — a partnership that yielded 92 runs.

Left-handed Ahmed Hussain, who too has enjoyed a rich vein of form in the tournament scoring a century and half-ton, struck a fine 56 before left-arm spinner Khilan Patel (2/44) enticed the middle-order batter to play the false sweep and gave a catch at mid-wicket.

His 137-run partnership with Minhas provided the deck for Pakistan to go for a big total.

New Delhi, Dec 21: The President of India has given assent to the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G) Bill, 2025 marking a significant milestone in the transformation of rural employment policy. The Act enhances the statutory wage employment guarantee to 125 days per financial year for rural households and seeks to advance empowerment, inclusive growth, convergence of development initiatives and saturation-based delivery, thereby strengthening the foundation for a prosperous, resilient and self-reliant Rural Bharat.

Earlier, Parliament passed the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, marking a decisive reform in India’s rural employment and development framework. The Act replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 with a modern statutory framework that enhances livelihood security and is aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

Anchored in the principles of empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation, the Act seeks to transform rural employment from a standalone welfare intervention into an integrated instrument of development. It strengthens income security for rural households, modernises governance and accountability, and links wage employment with the creation of durable and productive rural assets, thereby laying the foundation for a prosperous and resilient Rural Bharat.

Salient Features of the Act

Enhanced Statutory Employment Guarantee

The Act provides a statutory guarantee of not less than 125 days of wage employment per rural household in each financial year to households whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work (Section 5(1)).

This enhancement over the earlier 100-day entitlement significantly strengthens livelihood security, predictability of work, and income stability for rural households, while also enabling them to contribute more effectively and meaningfully to national development.

Balanced Provision for Agriculture and Rural Labour

To facilitate adequate availability of agricultural labour during peak sowing and harvesting seasons, the Act empowers States to notify an aggregated pause period aggregating to sixty days in a financial year (Section 6).

The full 125-day employment guarantee remains intact, to be provided during the remaining period, ensuring a calibrated balance that supports both agricultural productivity and worker security.

Timely Wage Payments

The Act mandates payment of wages on a weekly basis or, in any case, within fifteen days of completion of work (Section 5(3)). In cases of delay beyond the stipulated period, delay compensation shall be payable in accordance with the provisions laid down in Schedule II, reinforcing wage security and protecting workers from delays.

Employment Linked with Productive Rural Infrastructure

Wage employment under the Act is explicitly aligned with the creation of durable public assets across four priority thematic domains (Section 4(2) read with Schedule I):

Water security and water-related works

Core rural infrastructure

Livelihood-related infrastructure

Works to mitigate extreme weather events

All works are planned through a bottom-up process, and all assets created are aggregated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, ensuring convergence of public investments, avoidance of fragmentation, and outcome-based planning aimed at saturation of critical rural infrastructure, based on varying local needs.

Decentralised Planning with National Convergence

All works originate from Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans (VGPPs), prepared at the Gram Panchayat level through participatory processes and approved by the Gram Sabha (Sections 4(1)–4(3)).

These plans are digitally and spatially integrated with national platforms, including PM Gati Shakti, enabling whole-of-government convergence while fully retaining decentralised decision-making.

This integrated planning framework will enable Ministries and Departments to plan and implement works more effectively, avoid duplication and wastage of public resources, and accelerate development through saturation-based outcomes.

Reformed Financial Architecture

The Act is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, to be notified and operationalised by the State Governments in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

The cost-sharing pattern is 60:40 between the Centre and States, 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan States, and 100% central funding for Union Territories without legislatures.

Funding is provided through State-wise normative allocations based on objective parameters prescribed in the Rules (Sections 4(5) and 22(4)), ensuring predictability, fiscal discipline, and sound planning, while fully preserving statutory entitlements to employment and unemployment allowance.

Strengthened Administrative Capacity

The administrative expenditure ceiling has been enhanced from 6% to 9%, enabling improved staffing, training, technical capacity and field-level support, and strengthening the ability of institutions to deliver outcomes effectively.

The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 represents a decisive step towards renewing and strengthening India’s rural employment framework in line with the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047. By enhancing the statutory wage employment guarantee to 125 days per financial year, the Act reinforces the right to demand employment while deepening decentralised, participatory governance. It integrates transparent, rule-based funding, accountability mechanisms, technology-enabled inclusion and convergence-driven development to ensure that rural employment not only provides income security but also contributes to sustainable livelihoods, resilient assets and long-term rural prosperity.

Employment Guarantee and Right to Demand

The Act does not dilute the right to demand employment. On the contrary, Section 5(1) places a clear statutory obligation on the Government to provide not less than 125 days of guaranteed wage employment to eligible rural households. The expansion of guaranteed days, together with strengthened accountability and grievance redressal mechanisms, reinforces the enforceability of this right.

Normative Funding and Employment Provision

The shift to normative allocations pertains to budgeting and fund-flow mechanisms and does not affect the legal entitlement to employment. Sections 4(5) and 22(4) ensure rule-based, predictable allocations while retaining the statutory obligation to provide employment or unemployment allowance.

Decentralisation and Role of Panchayats

The Act does not centralise planning or execution. Sections 16 to 19 vest planning, implementation and monitoring authority in Panchayats, Programme Officers and District authorities at appropriate tiers. What is integrated at the national level is visibility, coordination and convergence, not local decision-making.

Employment and Asset Creation

The Act enshrines an enhanced statutory livelihood guarantee of 125 days, while ensuring that employment contributes to productive, durable and climate-resilient assets. Employment generation and asset creation are designed as mutually reinforcing objectives, supporting long-term rural growth and resilience (Section 4(2) and Schedule I).

Technology and Inclusion

Technology under the Act is intended as an enabling mechanism, not a barrier. Sections 23 and 24 provide for technology-enabled transparency through biometric authentication, geo-tagging and real-time dashboards, while Section 20 strengthens social audits by Gram Sabhas, ensuring community oversight, transparency and inclusion.

Unemployment Allowance

The Act removes earlier dis-entitlement provisions and restores unemployment allowance as a meaningful statutory safeguard. Where employment is not provided within the stipulated period, unemployment allowance becomes payable after fifteen days.

Conclusion

The passage of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 represents a significant renewal of India’s rural employment guarantee. By expanding statutory employment to 125 days, embedding decentralised and participatory planning, strengthening accountability, and institutionalising convergence and saturation-based development, the Act repositions rural employment as a strategic instrument for empowerment, inclusive growth and the creation of a prosperous and resilient Rural Bharat, fully aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

Ranchi, Dec 21: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has come under sharp criticism from leaders in Jharkhand as the hijab controversy continues to escalate, with the opposition parties demanding accountability and accusing him of “disrespecting women”.

The criticism comes after the Jharkhand government extended a job offer to Bihar AYUSH doctor Nusrat Praveen, promising a monthly salary of Rs 3 lakh, after she stopped reporting for duty following the hijab-related incident.

Jharkhand Health Minister Irfan Ansari said on Saturday that he had offered employment to the woman doctor with a monthly remuneration of Rs 3 lakh, along with a government residence and a posting of her choice, in response to the controversy that erupted during the distribution of appointment letters in Bihar.

Ansari claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar attempted to insult the hijab and the Muslim community by removing a woman’s veil.

Supporting Ansari’s remarks, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) spokesperson Manoj Kumar Pandey termed the incident a “shameful act” and accused Nitish Kumar of publicly humiliating the woman doctor.

Speaking to IANS, Pandey said, “What happened in the land of Bihar was a disgraceful act, and I consider it nothing but a shameful deed. A Chief Minister behaving improperly and publicly insulting a woman is unacceptable.”

“We don’t care about the religion or caste, but about the behaviour towards any woman. Why is this issue being buried? Why is Nitish Kumar not being removed from his post? Will a person with such mental condition serve as the Chief Minister of Bihar? Are there only such leaders in the BJP-led alliance?” he questioned.

Congress leader Rakesh Sinha also attacked the Bihar Chief Minister, accusing him of “disrespecting the dignity of women”.

Speaking to IANS, Sinha said, “When a person seated within the constitutional framework attempts to violate the dignity of women, it becomes our responsibility to restore that dignity. Congress respects the honour of mothers and sisters, regardless of their religion, community, or caste.”

Targeting the NDA allies, the Congress leader further said, “We believe it is in the nature of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies to disrespect women and violate their dignity.”

“Since the leaders of Nitish Kumar’s alliance have consistently displayed this behaviour, it was natural that when the woman became so emotional and agitated that she decided that she would no longer participate. Hence, we offered her to come to Jharkhand, assuring her that her dignity would be respected under the Mahagathbandhan government and the Congress party, and we would even provide her employment here,” he added.

The event, a video recording of which has been extensively shared and ignited a significant political controversy, occurred on December 20 at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Patna, where AYUSH doctors had assembled to obtain their appointment letters.

When the woman approached to receive her letter, Nitish Kumar noticed her hijab, asked her to remove it, stating, “What’s this?”, and then lifted the hijab himself.

The footage was widely circulated by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and soon turned into a political flashpoint.

Opposition parties raised objections, and the controversy triggered debates across the nation.

New Delhi, Dec 21: A first-of-its-kind J&K Darbar held at Jamia Millia Islamia on Saturday witnessed enthusiastic participation from students and scholars, underscoring a strong appetite among the youth for meaningful dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir’s social and political concerns.

Despite being organised at short notice, the event drew a large and attentive audience, said the organisers.

Host and moderator Mir Mujeeb, a senior PhD scholar at Jamia Millia Islamia, described the gathering as “a rare opportunity where young minds could engage directly, critically and honestly with a public representative on issues that shape their present and future.” According to Mujeeb, the objective of the Darbar was to create an open, non-partisan space rooted in academic inquiry and lived realities.

The interaction featured candid exchanges between PhD scholars, faculty members and Srinagar Member of Parliament Aga Ruhullah Mehdi. Rather than formal speeches, the session evolved into an open conversation marked by probing questions, reflections and counter-questions from the audience, lending the discussion a participatory and reflective character.

As described by Mujeeb, the deliberations covered a wide range of pressing concerns facing Jammu and Kashmir. These included youth unemployment and economic stagnation, the growing menace of drug abuse and the need for ethical and community-based responses, anxieties surrounding reservation rationalisation, climate change and deteriorating air quality, equitable sharing of hydropower resources, and the balance between modern education and ethical grounding. Rising mental health challenges among young people, driven by career uncertainty and mounting pressure, also featured prominently in the discussions.

Organised by PhD scholars of Jamia Millia Islamia, the Darbar retained a distinctly academic yet grounded tone. Participants noted that the calm, reflective and non-confrontational atmosphere allowed difficult issues to be discussed without slogans or political grandstanding.

Reflecting on the outcome, Mujeeb said the J&K Darbar reaffirmed Jamia’s legacy as a space for critical thought and responsible public engagement. He added that such forums—where scholars, youth and elected representatives think aloud together—are essential for rebuilding trust, confidence and a sense of direction among young citizens.