-Business Standard Monsoon starts withdrawing from northwest, complicating projections for kharif output Monsoon has started withdrawing from the northwestern region of the country, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday. “The southwest monsoon has withdrawn from western parts of Rajasthan,” the department said. The conditions are favourable for further withdrawal of the monsoon from northwest India in the next three-four days, it added. According to economists, it is too early to predict the impact...

-The Indian Express As many parts of the country reel under a back-to-back drought, Kavitha Iyer reports from the region that’s at the centre of the crisis. Weeks before hanging himself from a tree on his farm on June 1 this year, Kalyan Khomne, 55, read out a newspaper report to his son Shahdev. “It was about a farmer’s suicide in our taluka,” says 26-year-old Shahdev. His village, Nandurghat, and the nearby...

-The Indian Express The big question in the minds of everyone who can recall is: Will 2015 for Marathwada turn out worse than the worst-ever drought of 1972? Parbhani (Maharashtra): Sadashiv Kathurappa Gajmal, 44, has long stopped introducing himself as a farmer. “I am a labourer,” says this father of four and owner of 2.5 acres of land in Charthana village of Parbhani’s Jintur taluka. Unfortunately, he has had little or no...

-Down to Earth Despite being a world leader in pulses production, India has been forced to import due to crop loss and seed deficit. The sharp rise in prices is only a symptom Rani Devi, 47, is drying chickpea (chanaa daal) in Kuite Khera village of Uttar Pradesh. She intends to use them as seeds in the coming rabi season (October to December), as she is facing acute shortage of seeds....

-The Hindu Business Line Both the Centre and States need to be prepared for the possibility in peninsular India The bad news is that the met department’s pessimistic monsoon forecast — of it being 7 per cent less than the long-period average (LPA) — is turning out to be right. The monsoon started off with much promise in June, finishing the month with a 16 per cent surplus and Kharif sowing doing...