Millions of farmers plant rice, cane, corn, cotton and soybean crops in the rainy months of June and July. Harvesting starts from October
In the first of a two-part series, Business Standard examines the impact of the upcoming summer on agriculture and drinking water supply.
'The cold weather of Delhi was thawed away completely by the warmth of the prime minister,' says Kshitija Desai.
With the MeT department warning of heavy showers at various places in Uttarakhand on Friday and major rivers in spate, the Chardham yatra has been suspended even as the Centre decided to provide two Mi-17 helicopters to the state to deal with any emergency.
On Wednesday, while Colaba received 94.6 mm of rainfall, the weather station at Santacruz recorded a rainfall of 44.4 mm.
Several parts of Himachal Pradesh, including state capital Shimla, got another bout of snowfall on Monday as about 850 roads across the state remained blocked and disruption of power supply affected normal life.
940 children have died this year. A team from NCPCR found the hospital to be in the 'worst condition'. 77 infants had died till December 24 including 10 within 48 hours on December 23-24.
About 10 inches of snow had accumulated on ground around Jawahar Tunnel areas, but the real problem is continuous landslides and shooting of stones triggered by incessant rains in Ramban sector which is hampering the efforts of early restoration of the highway.
In Chennai, rains are expected to start early Thursday morning and intensify gradually. Government schools in the city have been shut down for the next two days
Incessant downpour has triggered landslides and floods in several districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Parts of Telangana are currently reeling under a heat wave that has already claimed 21 lives even as the meteorological department officials warned that day temperature would shoot up further.
Though agriculture ministry officials are confident of a bumper harvest due to record increase in kharif acreage, experts and farmers said the on-ground situation in some crops is not that encouraging as incessant rains since the last few weeks and pest attack could impact the final yield.
Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, recorded a low of -4.2C, slightly up from the previous night's -4.9C.
Displacing fears of a reduced cotton harvest in Punjab, officials say the state is set to achieve its target of 26.90 lakh bales this fiscal year.
'Bola nikal jao. Sala firing karte hai Russi.'
While the IMD had forecast a 'normal' monsoon for the entire season, Skymet stated that rain this year would be 'below normal', report Sanjeeb Mukherjee and Sahil Makkar.
Cyclone Vayu was to hit the Gujarat coast on Thursday, but it changed course on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
PSU bank shares were the top gainers on hopes of a rate by the RBI on easing consumer inflation
The incident is said to have occurred in the wee hours when a huge mound of earth fell on the 'row houses' and two children and five women were among the deceased, most of whom were plantation workers from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
All educational institutions in Shimla and Kullu districts will remain closed on Monday as heavy to extremely heavy rains continue to lash the state, district officials said.
Most parts in north India on Sunday continued to reel under cold wave conditions coupled with fog, with mercury plunging below the freezing point in Rajasthan's sole hill station Mount Abu.
The trough over the Bay of Bengal, which has caused the torrential downpour in the state, will weaken in next 48 hours.
The weather office on Monday forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over the next three days over some parts of Uttarakhand, which is still recovering from a deluge last week that is feared to have taken over 1,000 lives.
Cold wave conditions remained unabated as the night temperature across Kashmir continued to stay below the freezing point with forecasts for dry spell.
Tamil Nadu continued to experience monsoon fury, with heavy rains pounding various parts of the state under the influence of a well marked low pressure area over Bay of Bengal, as the death toll from rain-related incidents climbed to 59.
Hundreds of Kashmir-bound stranded vehicles were given green signal on Tuesday afternoon after the roads were cleared for vehicular traffic.
Only traces of rainfall were recorded in a few areas of the national capital on Thursday which continued to experience sultry weather.
With questions being raised whether large-scale deaths in Uttarkhand could have been averted, the MeT department today said it had issued "timely" warnings of heavy rains and landslides while the state government claimed there was not enough prior indication of a "crisis of this magnitude".
The high hills of Himachal Pradesh received snowfall leaving tourists delighted.
Prime Minister Modi needs to call Biden next month and clearly say: 'Mr President, the threat from China is clear and present. We, in New Delhi, have determined it to be an urgent national priority to outfit our submarines and aircraft carriers with nuclear propulsion and we want to cooperate with America on this programme",' advises Ajai Shukla.
The overall AQI deteriorated further and touched the 268 mark, which falls in the poor category.
The Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir to the rest of the country, was closed for vehicular traffic as the valley including Srinagar experienced fresh snowfall on Wednesday.
Behind the state's success in containing coronavirus positive cases is one novel initiative -- Active Case Finding or ACF, which even Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed for the bigger states to follow. The ACF campaign began in April with 16,000 basic health personnel, ASHA, anganwadi workers and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) out on foot trekking to most mountain valleys, snow-bound districts and remote passes of the state, reports Ashwani Sharma.
This may rescue pulses, cotton and oilseed sowing; rain revival in the south to take longer
'Monkey menace' has reached epic proportions in India. So pronounced is the problem of monkeys, that they have even derailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans of making his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi Wi-Fi-enabled.
According to media reports, 56 people -- mostly farm labourers working in the fields -- died in Bihar while 44 people were killed across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh.
The rains have so far been four per cent below normal.
The 71st Republic Day was celebrated in Kashmir amidst tight security. Lieutenant Governor's advisor presided over the main function. However most mainstream politicians stayed away.
King of fruits, mango, will not come cheap this year.
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