India to see above-average July rains after wetter than normal June
India to see above-average July rains after wetter than normal June
MUMBAI - India is likely to get above-average monsoon rainfall, critical to the economy, in July after receiving 9 per cent above-normal rains in June, a senior weather department official said on June 30 .
The monsoon is the lifeblood of India's nearly US$4 trillion (S$5.1 trillion) economy, delivering almost 70 per cent of the rainfall needed to water farms and replenishing aquifers and reservoirs.
Nearly half of India's farmland is not irrigated and depends on the annual June to September rains for crop growth.
All regions, except northeastern states and the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, are likely to receive rainfall equating to more than 106 per cent of the 50-year average in July, Mr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), told a virtual news conference.
Soybean and cotton-growing states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh are likely to receive above-average rainfall, as are rice-growing northern and most eastern states, according to Mr Mohapatra.
India received 9 per cent more rainfall than the long-period average for June, as the monsoon covered the entire country nine days ahead of its normal schedule.
Farmers usually start planting summer-sown crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane after the arrival of monsoon rains.
The early arrival of monsoon and above-average rainfall has accelerated planting of summer-sown crops, farm ministry data showed on June 30 .
Farmers had planted 26.2 million hectares with summer-sown crops by June 30 , up 11.3 per cent on the same period in 2024 .
Rice was planted on 3.5 million ha, larger than last year's 2.4 million ha. Farmers had planted another 4.9 million ha with oilseeds, including soybeans, up from 4 million ha a year ago.
Planting will gain further momentum in the coming weeks as recent rainfall has improved soil moisture levels, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.
'July rainfall is very crucial for summer crops. We can expect good yields if the monsoon delivers surplus rainfall in July,' the dealer said. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
40 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Methane-tracking satellite backed by billionaire Bezos is lost in space
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. WASHINGTON - An US$88 million (S$112 million) satellite backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos that detected oil and gas industry emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane has been lost in space, the group that operates said on July 1. MethaneSAT had been collecting emissions data and images from drilling sites, pipelines, and processing facilities around the world since March, but went off course around 10 days ago, the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), which led the initiative, said. Its last known location was over Svalbard in Norway and EDF said it did not expect it to be recovered as it had lost power. 'We're seeing this as a setback, not a failure,' Amy Middleton, senior vice-president at EDF, told Reuters. 'We've made so much progress and so much has been learned that if we hadn't taken this risk, we wouldn't have any of these learnings.' The launch of MethaneSAT in March 2024 was a milestone in a years-long campaign by EDF to hold accountable the more than 120 countries that in 2021 pledged to curb their methane emissions. It also sought to help enforce a further promise from 50 oil and gas companies made at the Dubai COP28 climate summit in December 2023 to eliminate methane and routine gas flaring. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Seniors can claim $800 SG60 vouchers from July 1; adults to get $600 in vouchers from July 22 Singapore NSman, 30, dies in hospital after collapsing outside Maju Camp Asia Thai PM's suspension could spell end of Shinawatra clan's era of political dominance Singapore Judge rejects woman's claim that she owns 99% of Bukit Timah condo mostly paid for by ex-boyfriend Singapore 'He fought till the end': Man who survived acid attack as a baby dies of cancer at 26 Singapore Trial opens for 3 women who allegedly organised procession outside Istana Business Do not overcommit to a single solution in a multi-polar world, says ex-foreign minister George Yeo Singapore 1MDB saga: Standard Chartered Bank disputes $3.4 billion claim by liquidators in Singapore Scientists say capping leaks from oil and gas wells and equipment is therefore one of the fastest ways to start tackling the problem of global warming. While MethaneSAT was not the only project to publish satellite data on methane emissions, its backers said it provided more detail on emissions sources and it partnered with Google to to create a publicly-available global map of emissions. Engineers investigating EDF reported the lost satellite to federal agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Federal Communications Commission and the US Space Force on July 1, it said. Building and launching the satellite cost US$88 million, according to the EDF. The organisation had received a US$100 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020 and got other major financial support from Arnold Ventures, the Robertson Foundation and the TED Audacious Project and EDF donors. The project was also partnered with the New Zealand Space Agency. EDF said it had insurance to cover the loss and its engineers were investigating what had happened. The organisation said it would continue to use its resources, including aircraft with methane-detecting spectrometers, to look for methane leaks. It also said it was too early to say whether it would seek to launch another satellite but believed MethaneSAT proved that a highly sensitive instrument 'could see total methane emissions, even at low levels, over wide areas.' Despite the efforts to increase transparency on emissions, methane 'super-emitters' have rarely taken action when alerted that they are leaking methane, the United Nations said in a 2024 report. The pressure on them to do has decreased as the United States under President Donald Trump's second administration has effectively ended a US programme to collect greenhouse gas data from major polluters and rescinded Biden-era rules aimed at curbing methane. REUTERS
Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Straits Times
Bessent says US trade deal with India is very close
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News the trade negotiations with India were "intricate". WASHINGTON - The US and India are nearing a deal to lower tariffs on American imports to the South Asian country and to help India avoid levies imposed by the Trump administration rising sharply next week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on July 1. 'We are very close with India,' Mr Bessent told Fox News in response to a question about progress on trade negotiations. Indian officials extended a visit to Washington last week through June 30 to try to reach agreement on a trade deal with President Donald Trump's administration and address lingering concerns on both sides, Indian government sources told Reuters. India is one of more than a dozen countries actively negotiating with the Trump administration to try to avoid a steep spike in tariff rates on July 9, when a 90-day tariff pause ends. India could see its new 'reciprocal' tariff rate rise to 27 per cent from the current 10 per cent. The US-India talks have hit roadblocks over disagreements on import duties for auto components, steel, and farm goods, ahead of Mr Trump's deadline to impose reciprocal tariffs. 'We are in the middle - hopefully more than the middle - of a very intricate trade negotiation,' Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told an event in New York on June 30. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Seniors can claim $800 SG60 vouchers from July 1; adults to get $600 in vouchers from July 22 Singapore NSman, 30, dies in hospital after collapsing outside Maju Camp Asia Thai PM's suspension could spell end of Shinawatra clan's era of political dominance Singapore Judge rejects woman's claim that she owns 99% of Bukit Timah condo mostly paid for by ex-boyfriend Singapore 'He fought till the end': Man who survived acid attack as a baby dies of cancer at 26 Singapore Trial opens for 3 women who allegedly organised procession outside Istana Business Do not overcommit to a single solution in a multi-polar world, says ex-foreign minister George Yeo Singapore 1MDB saga: Standard Chartered Bank disputes $3.4 billion claim by liquidators in Singapore 'Obviously, my hope would be that we bring it to a successful conclusion. I cannot guarantee it, because there's another party to that discussion,' said Mr Jaishankar, who is in the US for a meeting of the China-focused Quad grouping. He added that there 'will have to be give and take' and the two sides will have to find middle ground. Mr Bessent told Fox News that different countries have different agendas for trade deals, including Japan, which Mr Trump complained about on June 30. But Mr Bessent added that career trade negotiators are impressed with the offers that countries are making to the US. 'People who have been at Treasury, at Commerce, at USTR for 20 years, are saying that these are deals that they have never seen before,' Mr Bessent said. So far, only Britain has negotiated a limited trade deal with the Trump administration, accepting a 10 per cent US tariff on many goods, including autos, in exchange for special access for aircraft engines and British beef. REUTERS
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
Brazil government challenges Congress' reversal of tax hike, escalating tensions
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva walks on stage after giving a speech during the Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF) at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/Pool/ File Photo BRASILIA - Brazil's government filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging Congress' decision to overturn a tax hike on financial transactions, heating up tensions between the branches of power as the administration seeks ways to meet fiscal goals. The government believes that lawmakers overstepped their constitutional powers and created legal uncertainty by reversing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's decree raising the so-called IOF tax, Solicitor General Jorge Messias told reporters. Lula hiked the tax levied on certain credit, foreign-exchange and private pension plan operations in May as a way to boost revenue and limit spending freezes needed to comply with the government's fiscal framework. The move, however, sparked immediate backlash from lawmakers, who said they would not approve the tax hikes and last week dealt the government a major blow by ultimately nixing the decree. "If we hadn't made this move, we would be allowing interference from one branch of government into another," Messias said about the lawsuit. "Our approach is strictly legal, not political." The government had estimated that the IOF hike, already scaled back from an initial proposal for even higher rates, would generate an additional 12 billion reais ($2.20 billion) in revenue this year. Deputy Finance Minister Dario Durigan said earlier on Tuesday that the measure, along with some other fiscal proposals put forward by the government, would ensure compliance with the fiscal target this year and next. Latin America's largest economy aims to eliminate its primary deficit in 2025 and deliver a primary surplus of 0.25% of gross domestic product in 2026, though economists have voiced skepticism about its ability to reach those targets. "The reversal of the decree ends up affecting the economic and tax policy under responsibility of the head of the executive branch, and leads to a violation of the principle of separation of powers," Messias said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
