The next meeting on the Mahanadi water sharing issue between Odisha and Chhattisgarh is likely to be held on Saturday. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given his consent for the meeting to Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Uma Bharti, who has promised to find a solution to the dispute, while protecting the interests of Odisha.
In his second visit to poll-bound Gujarat in 20 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday visit Limkheda in the tribal district of Dahod, to inaugurate an irrigation scheme and address a public meeting. He will then proceed to Navsari in south Gujarat to interact with differently-abled people and distribute aid. However, he will start the day, which is also his 66th birthday, by seeking the blessings of his nonagenarian mother, Hiraba, in Ahmedabad.
The Navy’s latest destroyer, to be named the INS Mormugao, will be launched on Saturday. The Rs 7,000-crore warship, made under Project-15B, will have advanced stealth features and surface-to-air as well as cruise missiles, but is unlikely to have the crucial towed array sonar – an essential sensor to detect submarines – for now. The INS Mormugao is likely to be inducted into service by 2020. The first ship under P-15B, INS Visakhapatnam, would be commissioned in 2018. In 2011, the government had sanctioned the construction of four destroyers under Project-15B at a cost of Rs 29,700 crore.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh is to visit Russia for five days beginning September 18 during which he will hold bilateral talks with the Russian Minister for Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, and discuss issues related to Indo-Russia joint anti-terror cooperation. They will also discuss cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and the growing activities of ISIS in the country and its neighbourhood.