Moody's earlier this week lowered its growth forecast to 7 per cent, from 7.5 per cent.
In many parts of central and north India, monsoon reaches only in July.
The finance minister has increased the quantum of rural credit, with particular emphasis on short-term crop loans for small farmers and focussed heavily on improving food storage and processing infrastructure as well as supply chain management.
Costlier vegetables slowly pushed retail inflation, which had remained well within the Reserve Bank's comfortable level of 4 per cent during most part of 2019, peaked to more than three-year high of 5.54 per cent in November.
Monetary Policy- Easing expected to happen later this financial year.
According to the global financial services major, inflation may remain sticky, with a possible El Nino effect on the monsoon likely to push up food prices and geopolitical uncertainties seen pumping up global commodity rates.
Key risk for price rise is the 'deficient' monsoon that could lead to a pick-up in inflation expectations.
State Bank of India's house economists on Monday said the recent farm sector reforms reek of parochial thinking and promote lazy farming as they only cater to cereal-producing states. In the recently concluded monsoon session, the government rushed through three legislation to change the way agricultural produce is marketed, sold and stored by dismantling the decades-old APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) mandis.
The wholesale price index based inflation in June declined to 7.25 per cent from 7.55 per cent in the previous month.
Inflation in the 'fuel and power' basket in December slumped to 8.38 per cent, nearly half of 16.28 per cent.
UN body Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has revised upwards India's rice production to 100 million tonnes (MT) in the 2012-13 crop year on the back of revival of rains in August and September.
To a specific question on the change in RBI's stance from "neutral" to "accommodative", Das said it means that there will not be any rate hike from here on.
Government's effective supply-side measures and commendable commitment to fiscal consolidation will have a salutary impact on inflation, says the RBI report.
Inflation data for June has not brought any cheer to the markets. From this data, the possibility of a rate cut is negligible. Deficient monsoons and higher food prices would make any rate action difficult.
The agriculture minister said the government's constant efforts are aimed at making farmers prosperous by increasing their income.
NITI Aayog has been working on an action plan to relieve rural distress and energise the agricultural sector
The NCEAR has indicated some improvement in the fourth quarter of the current financial year.
The employment situation remains dire. Whatever can be done to promote greater low-skill employment should be pursued aggressively, advises former chief economic adviser Shankar Acharya.
The minister blamed 'fragmented farming, provisions in the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development & Regulation) Act, lack of cold chain facilities, transportation, proper storage and processing facilities' for the losses.
Deficiency in rainfall and the resultant decline in food grains and oilseeds output would exert inflationary pressures and need to be cushioned against the possible delay in monsoon, an Assocham study said.
The price rise measured in terms of Wholesale Price Index rose for the second straight month, to 5.79 per cent in July, on account of double digit rise in prices of food articles, mainly vegetables, including onion.
Of the total cash outgo Rs 40,000 crore is towards enhanced expenditure under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program and Rs 33,771.48 crore have been sought for direct benefit transfer under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and National Social Assistance Programme.
Rajesh Karkera journeys through verdant countryside to the little-explored pristine Lonar lake in eastern Maharashtra.
'Both IIP and CPI inflation numbers are showing a huge disconnect from the leading indicators.'
With satisfactory progress of monsoon rainfalls prompting farmers to bring in additional area under basmati sowing, prices are set to fall lower going forward.
With economic growth slowing to a six-year low, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath says the government should undertake structural reforms such as bank clean-up and labour reforms to address the slowdown in domestic demand. She rooted for government policies focusing on managing a slowdown in domestic demand, and on boosting productivity growth and supporting employment creation in the medium term.
While a pick-up in summer monsoon rains in recent weeks is expected to cool food inflation, most analysts don't anticipate another rate cut before a new governor is on the job
Slowing inflation prompted the RBI to cut the policy repurchase rate last month by 25 basis points to 6.50 percent, the lowest since 2011.
In the second policy review under Governor Shaktikanta Das, the six-member Monetary Policy Committee voted 4:2 in favour of the rate cut.
We need to invest in the science of monsoons and weather forecasting.
Food inflation is still very much a problem and needs fixing urgently, but the bad monsoon apparently did not make it worse.
The forecast of deficient monsoon rainfalls scared farmers.
Swarms of immature pink locusts and adult yellow locusts are currrently active. Not only are fresh locusts swarms expected to arrive in the coming weeks, but even those already present in India have mated and are breeding new offspring.
The CII has suggested a 5-point agenda on the measures that need to be undertaken by central and state governments to stave off the adverse effects of a deficient monsoon. Let's find out what this agenda is. . .
El Nino, which refers to warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, will likely to keep CPI inflation up at 8-10 per cent in the second half of 2014 and will pose a 50-70 basis point risk to this fiscal's growth expectation, the report by financial services major Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.
India is gearing up to introduce a six-member monetary policy committee that would vote on interest rates.
Strict lockdown-like restrictions are already in place in the southern stateand the Pinarayi Vijayan government decided to clamp the complete shutdown in the wake of severe spike in the positive cases.
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The IMD attributed the projection to a weakening of El Nio and the Indian Ocean Dipole turning positive.
This was the near-unanimous replies of 10 market participants.
