Context: The Central government is working on the establishment of an exclusive body called  National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA) to implement projects for linking rivers.An official of the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), which is responsible for the formulation of proposals of the linking of rivers, said an updated draft Cabinet note has been circulated to other Ministries in the Central government. On receipt of comments, the note will be finalised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and sent to the Union Cabinet for approval.
Key findings

• The subject of establishment of the Authority was discussed at the meeting of the Special Committee on Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) recently held in New Delhi.
• The proposed body National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA) is expected to take up both inter-State and intra-State projects. 
• The proposed body will also make arrangements for generating up funds, internally and externally.
• Once approved, the projects will be pursued as national projects, wherein the Centre will absorb 90% of the cost and the States concerned the rest.

Linkages of rivers

• Objective:To transfer water from water ‘surplus’ basins to water ‘deficit’ basins where there is drought/scarcity, through inter-basin water transfer projects.

Need of Interlinking of rivers(ILR) in India

• High Rainfall variability in India: The Indian summer monsoon rainfall is known to have considerable spatial variability, which imposes some limitations on the all-India mean at present. 
• Frequent occurrence of floods and droughts in the country: Due to drastic spatio temporal unevenness of rainfall in the country many regions in the country face severe drought whereas many regions face severe floods routinely.
• Demand-Supply gaps in water availability: Geographical and time variance in the availability of natural water versus the year round demand for irrigation, drinking and industrial water creates a demand-supply gap that has been worsening with India's rising populaion

All ILR Projects in India:

• As of now, six ILR projects — the Ken-Betwa, Damanganga- Pinjal, Par-Tapi-Narmada, Manas-Sankosh-Teesta-Ganga, Mahanadi-Godavari and Godavari-Cauvery (Grand Anicut) — have been under examination of the authorities.
• With regard to the peninsular rivers, the Centre has chosen to focus on the Godavari-Cauvery link than the earlier proposal to link the Mahanadi-Godavari-Krishna-Pennar-Cauvery rivers.

About The National Water Development Agency (NWDA)

• It is an autonomous Society under the societies registration act 1860
• It has been created to carry out the water balance and other studies on a scientific and realistic basis for optimum utilization of water resources.
• It gives concrete shape to the National Perspective Plan (NPP) prepared by Central Water Commission and the then Ministry of Irrigation now Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.