-The Times of India The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has sounded an alert over a deficient monsoon, directing ministries to help states facing drought-like situations by operationalizing contingency plans to distribute seeds, augment fodder and power and deal with drinking water shortages. PMO said the monsoon season rainfall is likely to be 92% of the long-term average (LPA), less than the 96% LPA predicted in June that itself was a downgrade from...
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Lower Kharif sowing a cause of worry-Gargi Parsai
-The Hindu With sowing of kharif crops lagging by over 86 lakh hectares compared to last year, owing to an erratic southwest monsoon and the average water level in major reservoirs declining by 2 per cent (to 59 per cent of last year’s storage) over the previous week, the country faces a grim situation. The area under rice, pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals is less than what it was last year. Earlier, the...
More »Demand, not supply
-The Business Standard MGNREGA review should be based on more research Both acclaim and accusations have been hurled at the UPA’s landmark scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, or MGNREGA. Usually, the reasons for the criticism or praise are less-than-completely supported. For example, it has been both praised and condemned for providing local wage employment to the jobless, thus curbing outmigration; similarly, it is claimed that the scheme has...
More »Elusive monsoon-Devinder Sharma
While any loss in production following the dry spell will further hit the growth story, it will also push up food inflation. considerably. Once again the rain gods are playing truant. With 31 per cent shortfall in June, and with an expectation of only 70 per cent of the predicted 96 per cent rainfall for the July-August months, crucial for farming operations, Kharif sowings have already been hit. In June alone,...
More »World braves one of the worst summers; May temperature second hottest since 1880
-The Economic Times It's not just India that is baking. Globally, this seems to be one of the worst summers in recorded history. The global average temperature for May was the second hottest ever since 1880 - the year records were first compiled -- US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) has said. Only 2010 witnessed a worse May. The NCDC said such a hot May was never recorded in the northern hemisphere. No...
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