Monsoon sets over mainland; IMD sees advance over 48 hrs

Kerala welcomed the first showers of the southwest monsoon on Thursday, a week behind schedule, with its predicted advance raising overall confidence about rural incomes and economic growth.

- Puja Das & Gireesh Chandra Prasad

The June-to-September monsoon, which waters 45% of India’s cultivated land, is set to progress over more of peninsular India and the northeast over the next 48 hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The monsoon’s progress is keenly watched by policymakers, given its influence on India’s rural economy and incomes in a pre-election year, when governments remain on alert for any policy intervention.

Monsoon rainfall drives a big chunk of India’s $3 trillion economy, bringing over a third of the country’s annual rains which are crucial for agriculture and replenishing reservoirs and aquifers, besides meeting power demand. Agriculture is among India’s biggest employment generators.

The weather office said the monsoon current has advanced across all of Lakshadweep, most parts of Kerala and south Tamil Nadu, remaining parts of the Comorin area—the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula—and the Gulf of Mannar on Thursday. Conditions are now favourable for the monsoon to enter the central Arabian Sea and some parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. The southwest monsoon typically hits the Kerala coast in India’s mainland by 1 June, and its onset has not been delayed beyond 8 June, at least in the past 20 years.