Monsoon Madness

farmers in the western city of Nagpur organised a wedding of two frogs to please the rain gods.

When El Nino, a weather condition marked by warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean waters, hits the monsoon it can cause a lack of rains and even drought.

The farm sector accounts for nearly 17 percent of India’s gross domestic product and provides a livelihood for most of the 1.1 billion population.

Robust monsoon rains often leads to bumper harvests, which in turn raises farm incomes and increases demand for goods ranging from television to cars and lends support to factory output.

Poor monsoon rains could dent rural demand, hurt corporate profitability and undermine sentiment in financial markets.