Positive correlation

The importance of the monsoons for India’s economy is well documented. Given the global economic slowdown, the annual seasonal rains this year have acquired an added significance. So much so that Minister for Science and Technology Vilasrao Deshmukh even joked that the mild showers in the capital the day the 2012 forecast of the southwest monsoon was announced was a harbinger of good news. “Don’t worry,” he told journalists who wondered whether April’s unseasonal rains would impact the monsoons, “the rains today are also a pointer to the fact that our forecast is positive.” Whether the rain gods – or rather the capricious El Nino – will corroborate his optimism is another matter, of course.