On Tuesday, private weather agency Skymet said the monsoon would hit the Kerala coast on June 4, with an error margin of two days
What augurs ill for the economy is that Skymet expects multiple agrarian regions to have serious shortfall in rains
Rains usually lash Kerala state around June 1 and cover the whole country by mid-July. Timely rains trigger planting of crops such as rice, soybeans and cotton
After a drought in Maharashtra and Gujarat reduced output last year, unseasonal rainfall this year has damaged crop; no respite in sight for consumers
Laxman Singh Rathore, former Director General of the IMD, said in parts of northeast India and the Western Ghats, pre-monsoon rainfall is critical for plantation of crops
Predictions for below-average rain by a private forecast earlier this month has raised the specter of increasing food costs combining with higher oil prices
Several consumer facing companies said it will help boost demand of goods and keep the inflation in check post-September after IMD's monsoon predictions
The IMD's prediction comes days after private weather forecaster Skymet projected less than normal rains this season
The monsoon season delivers about 70% of India's annual rainfall and is key to the success of the farm sector in India
According to Skymet, June and July will have less rains
The probability of normal showers this year is more than 50 percent, Jatin Singh, managing director of the New Delhi-based private forecaster, told reporters in a preliminary forecast
This year, the withdrawal of monsoon from most parts of India is almost a month behind the normal schedule of Sept 1
Though overall rains have been over 9 per cent below normal, it hasn't led to a sharp drop in the area under kharif crops
In 11 states and UTs, including Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, 50% or more districts experienced deficient to "large deficient" rainfall, as per an analysis
The Central Water Commisison (CWC) has issued heavy to very heavy rain alerts for some districts of Uttarkhand and western Uttar Pradesh, including Ghaziabad and Balrampur
Several parts of the country, barring Kerala, which is faced with floods, received less than normal rainfall in the August 02-08 week
A total of 13,915 people have been moved to safer places due to the rising water levels
No sub-division recorded "largely excess" rainfall while west Uttar Pradesh and Odisha witnessed "excess" rainfall
The southern peninsula and central India have been witnessing good rains. The two regions gauged 17 and 7% more precipitation than the normal limit
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gujarat, have been left out, despite a strong start to the monsoon in June