India staring at uncertainty over normal monsoon

With the monsoon taking a break, independent weather services have doubts if the four-month long season would be normal this year. Monsoon has been below normal by 5 per cent till Friday, and has impacted the sowing of kharif crops, with total area under cultivation falling 0.56 per cent till date year-on-year.
 
Only cotton and sugarcane saw a rise in acreage, according to the data released by the agriculture ministry. Overall, the sowing area is 101.38 million hectares against 101.96 million hectares a year ago.
 
Normal monsoon was one of the assumptions in various forecasts of economic growth