As I write this my city Delhi is drowning. It started raining early this morning and within a few hours the city has come to a standstill. The television is showing scenes of traffic snarled up for hours, roads waterlogged and people and vehicles sunk deep in water and muck. The meteorological department records that some 60 mm of rain has fallen in just about 6 hours; 90 mm in 24...

Rainfall during the remaining two months of the monsoon season is likely to be 10 per cent below normal, weather scientists said today, predicting monsoon behaviour that they say “has the potential to hurt crops in some places”. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said rainfall over India during August and September is likely to be 90 per cent of the long period average, after a copious 111 per cent rainfall in...

Despite a recovery, acreage of groundnut, sunflower and castorseed recorded a sharp decline this year due to low rainfall in major producing areas during the peak sowing season. The three major kharif oilseeds are sown for a month starting June 15 and harvested between October and December. Data collated by the ministry of agriculture showed the area under groundnut declined 28.37 per cent as on July 21. The sowing area under...

The chamber said concrete steps need to be taken to promote investment, given that recent data shows the investment growth rate slowed from 38.1% in 2007-08 to 36.5% in 2009-10 The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday called for the government to provide tax incentives on agricultural activities in the forthcoming Budget to encourage private participation and adoption of new technologies in the sector. “CII has recommended encouraging private sector participation...

Nearly one-third of the 597 districts received deficient rains this monsoon season, which otherwise saw excess to normal falls across the country after a drought year. Out of 597 meteorological districts for which data are available, 173 districts (29 per cent) received deficient rains, while 11 got scanty falls this season, said the End of Monsoon Season report of the weather office. On the brighter side, 240 districts (40 per cent) received...