Agriculture's role in the economy has reduced over the decades, easing impact of 'climatic shock'
Street remains cautious about the sector due to lower price realisations and fears about El Nino's impact on the monsoon
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a normal rainfall in July at 94-106 per cent of the long-period average (LPA), cumulatively across India.
El Nino, a warming of water surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, is linked to extreme weather conditions from tropical cyclones to heavy rainfall to severe droughts
Governor Shaktikanta Das has said the Reserve Bank will strive to get headline inflation to its 4 per cent target but flagged El Nino as a challenge to its efforts. In an exclusive interview with PTI Bhasha at his office here, Das exuded confidence that the economy will grow at 6.5 per cent in FY24, as estimated by the RBI earlier. The central bank's rate hikes by a cumulative 2.50 per cent since May last year, coupled with supply-side measures from the government, have helped get the inflation down to 4.25 per cent in May from a peak of 7.8 per cent in April last year, Das said. "We continue to be watchful on the inflation front. We expect inflation to be at 5.1 per cent in FY24, and we will continue to strive and get it down to 4 per cent," he added. On the high borrowing costs, Das said interest rates have a direct relation with inflation, and the RBI can cut interest rates if the consumer price inflation cools down to 4 per cent or thereabouts on a durable basis. The governor
Mosquitoes that transmit such viruses flourish in the warmer weather that El Niño is set to bring to many parts of the world
India reported one of the hottest summers in 2022, when it recorded 203 heatwave days
The WHO chief also warned that climate change is fueling the breeding of mosquitoes, and incidence of dengue has already risen sharply in recent decades, particularly in the Americas
A deficient monsoon could push food inflation by 50-60 basis points; it is likely to have lower than 50 bps impact on headline inflation that the RBI talks about as potential negative impact
China on Tuesday ramped up its flood control and disaster relief efforts to safeguard people's lives and properties amid the growing El Nino threat
The last El Nino event occurred between February and August 2019 but its impacts were relatively weak
India 'well covered', equipped to tackle El Niño impact: CEA
The resilience of Indian agriculture to weather shocks has strengthened, but mitigating risks requires careful policy response
Less-than-expected rainfall and a poor spatial distribution, experts say, can rekindle fears of a rise in food and fuel inflation that can have an impact on the RBI's monetary policy.
Experts say it will likely make 2024 the world's hottest year
Nino 3.4 index value jumped from minus 0.2° Celsius to 0.8° Celsius between March and June this year; meteorologists say such accelerated rates of warming were unusual
"The governments of nine departments "do not have the response capacity" to deal with the foreseen situation brought about by the El Nino phenomenon, making national-level assistance necessary"
El Nino is on , which can lead to severe heat waves and droughts in many countries, including India, new research published in the journal Science has warned
The paper, by Dartmouth Earth system scientists Christopher Callahan and Justin Mankin and published in the journal Science
The natural burst of El Nino warming that changes weather worldwide is far costlier with longer-lasting expenses than experts had thought, averaging trillions of dollars in damage, a new study found. An El Nino is brewing now and it might be a big and therefore costly one, scientists said. El Nino is a temporary and natural warming of parts of the equatorial Pacific, that causes droughts, floods and heat waves in different parts of the world. It also adds an extra boost to human-caused warming. The study in Thursday's journal Science totals global damage with an emphasis on lasting economic scars. It runs counter to previous research that found, at least in the United States, that El Ninos overall aren't too costly and can even be beneficial. And some but not all outside economists have issues with the new research out of Dartmouth College, saying its damage estimates are too big. Study authors said the average El Nino costs the global economy about $3.4 trillion. The strong ...