Skymet reports good pre-monsoon showers; minister says rains to hit Kerala shores by Mar-end or early June; adequate rain to add half to one percentage point to GDP.
After two years of dry spell, rain gods are finally smiling on India this year. This was reported by Skymet weather services, which said on Wednesday that many areas in the country had received good pre-monsoon showers over the last two days.
Earlier in the day, science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan told the Parliament that rains are likely to hit Kerala shores by May-end or early June.
"Climatologically, the monsoon is expected to reach South Kerala either by end of May or in the early days of June and a forecast will be issued on May 15," he told the lower house.
This spells good news for the economy, which had seen shortfall in rains push down the growth rate and flare up food prices. Dr DK Srivastava, chief economic advisor, EY India, said adequate rainfall during the current year could add half to one percentage point to the GDP growth rate.
"It would be a welcome relief after two years of deficient rainfall. It will partly push up our growth rate and also push down the tendency of food prices to go up. Normal and slightly above monsoon means growth will be pushed up by half to one percentage point," he said.
According to Skymet, good showers was being observed in the foothills of the Himalayas and scattered rainfall activity over many parts of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, East Uttar Pradesh, East Madhya Pradesh, parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, north interior Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It, however, said that many areas in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra still remained dry.
The weather service company said pre-monsoon rains were likely to pick up pace and spread to more areas of the country.
In April, Indian Meteorology Department (IMD) had forecast above normal monsoon of 106% of the long period average. The monsoon is considered normal when the rainfall is 96% to 104% of the long period average and is considered above normal when it is 105% to 110%.
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