-The Hindustan Times     For India, the monsoon is more than just a cool respite: It's the economy's life-blood. It's a long expedition nature undertakes each year. Drafts of early-summer breeze in from the southern Pacific stream northwards, preparing to travel more than 8,000 km to reach Asia in time and picking up moisture on the way. If the Pacific winds are one essential ingredient of a perfect monsoon, the Indian...

-The Hindu   The much-awaited Southwest Monsoon, crucial to the country's economy, is expected to hit Kerala in the next 24 hours. But whether it will be bountiful or erratic and how it will impact the agriculture sector is not known. States have been alerted to be prepared with contingency plans for kharif (paddy) sowing. "Conditions are conducive for the likely onset of monsoon in Kerala in the next 24 hours. Today (Thursday) there...

-Down to Earth   Ready-to-harvest crops damaged, farmers fear orchards may not regenerate In a repeat of the hailstorms that devastated crops in parts of Maharashtra in March this year, several districts in western part of the state, including Marathwada region, experienced another bout of hail on Tuesday. Though the MeT department has called this phenomenon a pre-monsoon event, the intensity of the storm and the scale of damage caused to life and...

-The Business Standard   Food articles inflation dips to 8.64% compared to 9.9% in March Wholesale Price Index-based Inflation fell by 0.5 percentage points to 5.2 per cent in April from 5.7 per cent in March, providing some relief to a new government amid other deteriorating macroeconomic numbers such as retail inflation and industrial output. All three major components of the index - food, fuel and manufactured goods - recorded moderation in inflation on...

-Financial Chronicle   Forecasts on possible monsoon behaviour are not very encouraging. There is a possibility of El Nino factors causing further problems. More recently, our farmers in parts of north and central India experienced the fury of hailstorms and heavy rains. Climate change further complicates the possibility of providing accurate advance estimates of monsoon behaviour. This is not only true in our country, but also around the world. California, for example,...