-Business Standard Weather forecaster Skymet says good winter rains are expected over most parts of India in the next few days Sowing of wheat in the week ending January 15 was less than last year, because of less sowing area in the rainfed areas of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Low residual soil moisture and unusually warm weather in this season has impacted rabi sowing in these parts. However, with the weather turning cold in many...

-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...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Whether due to odd-even rule or not, air pollution levels in the city have begun to fall. Data released by System of Air Quality and weather forecasting And Research (SAFAR) of the ministry of earth sciences showed PM2.5 concentration on January 9 to be at the lowest level since December 25. It was also lower than the level recorded on the same day in 2015. Please click...

-Business Standard Last week, a senior ministry official had said wheat production in India was likely to fall below 90 million tonnes for another year in a row in FY16 The warmish winter in the north is not yet seen as having an adverse impact on the final wheat harvest but the next few days would be important, said Union agriculture secretary Siraj Hussain. The Centre is monitoring the situation and is hopeful...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The national weather agency has adopted a new rulebook, tweaking figures that define rain conditions, cold and heat waves and abandoning what it has conceded were ambiguous and unhelpful terminology such as "could" and "may". A forecasting circular issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has altered in subtle ways the definitions of cold and heat waves (see chart), introducing uniform cut-offs for locations across the country, and...