-The Hindu Waning El Nino among factors underlying Met office’s optimism. In line with recent predictions by private weather forecasters, India’s official weather forecasting agency too has said the monsoon is likely to be “above normal” and likely to be 106 per cent of the average of 89 cm. Monsoon rains within 96 per cent and 104 per cent of this average are considered “normal” in the terminology of the India Meteorological Department...

-Livemint.com A study reveals that such rainfall is influenced more by changes in conditions like local temperature and urbanization Hyderabad: The blame for extreme rainfall in India, a recurrent phenomenon in some cities, cannot be laid squarely on global warming and the El-Nino effect, perhaps. A study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) reveals that such rainfall is influenced more by changes in conditions like local temperature and urbanization. The study...

-The Hindu While the Delhi government’s spirit of experimentation is to be lauded, the right lessons need to be learnt from the odd-even trial. It is now amply clear that no credible data supports the Delhi government’s claim that the odd-even trial has reduced pollution or improved air quality. In fact, the quality of air in the first week of January was worse compared to previous weeks. Data obtained from the National...

-Hindustan Times Wheat, the country’s winter staple, has hit hurdles, with farmers unable to sow the normal area and instances of a dreaded fungus attack being reported from some parts of Punjab and Haryana, raising concerns of a lower output. Summer foodgrain output fell 1.7% at 124.05 million tonne, according to the government’s first of the four quarterly estimates due to a crippling back-to-back drought. This has hurt farm incomes, which support...

-Scroll.in And what that tells us about how agriculture is faring in Punjab. The professor will not forget 2015 easily. A scientist at Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University, he has been studying cotton for 15 years. But what he saw this year was entirely unfamiliar. It started with the rains. Punjab saw downpours during the normally dry months of March and April. It rained in June as well – a month when temperatures should have...