'India may avoid drought for 4th straight year'

India might avoid a drought for a fourth straight year, as the El Nino weather system looks unlikely to impact monsoon rains, the lead forecaster of the Indian weather office, D S Pai, said on Thursday, promising yet another bumper grain output in Asia's third-biggest economy. El Nino was a factor in India's last severe drought in 2009, when the country had to import sugar, pushing global prices to 30-year highs. "El Nino is now at a neutral phase and a review about its emergence with associated impact over the Indian sub-continent will be done during the second half of April," Pai said. Rains below 90 percent of a 50-year average are termed deficient by the weather office.