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India’s worst-ever water shortage, and the corruption surrounding it

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India may need major rainfalls to reverse its economic slowdown
PUBLISHED WED, JUL 10 2019 2:10 AM EDT

Yen Nee Lee@YENNEE_LEE

KEY POINTS
  • India’s agriculture sector accounts for around 14% of the country’s $2.7 trillion economy and 42% of total employment, said Rajiv Biswas, chief economist in Asia Pacific for consultancy IHS Markit.
  • With around 55% of India’s arable land dependent on precipitation, the amount of rainfall during the current monsoon season could sway economic activity in the agriculture sector and industries linked to it.
  • That slow start to the monsoon harvest season has prompted the government to raise minimum support prices for all of the current season’s crops to help support farmers’ incomes, according to local media.
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A fruit seller waits for customers during heavy rains in Mumbai on Aug. 13, 2013.
Indranil Mukherjee | AFP | Getty Images


India needs this year’s monsoon season to deliver heavier rainfall that will boost farm output and economic growth — but the country has been disappointed so far.

Asia’s third-largest economy ended June — the first month of the monsoon season — with total rainfall 33% below its 50-year average, according to Citi, which cited data from the India Meteorological Department. Rain has picked up in July and the total rainfall this month will affect India’s agricultural output and overall economic momentum, analysts said.


“Major crop-sowing takes place in July. This is the critical monsoon month for the agriculture sector when more than 50.0% of the Kharif crop sowing takes place,” analysts from Citi wrote in a report last week. Kharif crops include rice, maize, sorghum and cotton, and are planted during the monsoon season.

The agriculture sector in India is both economically and politically important. The industry accounts for around 14% of the country’s $2.7 trillion economy and 42% of total employment, according to Rajiv Biswas, chief economist in Asia Pacific for consultancy IHS Markit.

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About one-third of India’s manufacturing output — which makes up around 18% of the country’s gross domestic product — is linked to turning agricultural products into food, Biswas noted. And with around 55% of India’s arable land dependent on rain, the monsoon season could sway economic activity in the agriculture sector and industries linked to it.

India’s economic growth slumped to 5.8% in the January-to-March period compared to 6.6% in the previous three months due in large part to poor performance in the agriculture and manufacturing industries.

“The overall Indian economy remains very vulnerable to the monsoon, since poor rainfall can significantly reduce agricultural production,” Biswas told CNBC in an email.

In recent years, rain has become even more important for India as dryer monsoons have caused a water supply crisis in the country to worsen. A government think tank, the National Institution for Transforming India, said in a report last year that 21 Indian cities — including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai — could run out of groundwater by 2020.

In addition to reduced rainfall in recent years, factors including increased demand and inefficient usage have contributed to India’s water shortage, said Radhika Rao, an economist at Singaporean bank DBS.

The late arrival of the annual monsoon is “feeding worries over scarce water supply,” she wrote in a note last week.

India’s ‘high priority’
Alongside the lackluster rainfall, farmers have sowed fewer crops including rice and cotton compared to the same time last year, local media reported.

That slow start to the monsoon harvest season has prompted the government to take action: It raised the minimum support price for all of the current season’s crops, according to local media. That move could encourage farmers to raise their output, which then benefits other related businesses such as sellers of tractors and fertilizers.

“If farm incomes are reduced by a poor monsoon season, it also impacts negatively on agricultural processing output (as well as) retail trade and other services in rural regions,” he added.

Such an increase in economic activity also boosts consumer demand in the rural areas of India, and helps Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfill his promises to improve the lives of farmers, according to the reports.

The economic significance of Indian farmers and the sheer number of them are among reasons why they’re often at the center of political contests and government policies. Ahead of the recent general elections, which Modi won, farmers were the big winners in the interim budget tabled in February by the government.

While many government measures have helped to support farmers’ incomes in the event of bad monsoon seasons, reducing the agriculture sector’s reliance on rain is a more important issue to tackle, said IHS Markit’s Biswas.

“The Indian government needs to put a high priority on investing heavily in improved water storage systems for the agricultural sector,” he said. “This would help to improve India’s resilience to bad monsoons through agricultural infrastructure such as dams and improved irrigation systems.”

— Reuters contributed to this report.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/ind...nsoon-rain-on-agriculture-sector-farmers.html
 
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All the lakes are full. Most of the Chennai Suburbs are flooded. Nature at full swing from drought to flooding

https://www.thehindu.com/news/natio...l-districts-more-in-store/article30126891.ece

For bathing in the Pool? Even during drought all resorts has their pool always opened
For bathing in a pool when people are thirsty and had to queue hours for water. Are you guys really that oblivious to the suffering of your fellow Indians? They already have no water to wash their arses.. And shitting in the open.... Whole you bathe in a pool? Yah the reservoirs are full again but the ground water is near zero..... Next year the cycle repeats itself. There is something called planning before shit happens.... Do you know how many people died due the diseases caused by this drought? Wait nobody even cares about Indian lives... Lol
 
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For bathing in a pool when people are thirsty and had to queue hours for water. Are you guys really that oblivious to the suffering of your fellow Indians? They already have no water to wash their arses.. And shitting in the open.... Whole you bathe in a pool? Yah the reservoirs are full again but the ground water is near zero..... Next year the cycle repeats itself. There is something called planning before shit happens.... Do you know how many people died due the diseases caused by this drought? Wait nobody even cares about Indian lives... Lol
Lol who cares in India everyone can do what they want in private this is not china to impose personal moral
 
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Lol who cares in India everyone can do what they want in private this is not china to impose personal moral
Haha no wonder Indians can be so delusional about being a Supapowa while their people are starving and now thirsty. You ever wonder why Germany has food wastage laws? You guys should have water wastage laws. I am sure alot died of thirst and end up as a hunger death in Tamil Nadu. I am glad you don't care about your countrymen, I am sure India will implode when your demographic dividend comes. Hahhaha... Imagine an economy which can't deliver jobs starving n thirsty, rape cases will spike as the desperate look at those educated women.
 
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Haha no wonder Indians can be so delusional about being a Supapowa while their people are starving and now thirsty. You ever wonder why Germany has food wastage laws? You guys should have water wastage laws. I am sure alot died of thirst and end up as a hunger death in Tamil Nadu. I am glad you don't care about your countrymen, I am sure India will implode when your demographic dividend comes. Hahhaha... Imagine an economy which can't deliver jobs starving n thirsty, rape cases will spike as the desperate look at those educated women.
There no Hunger death in TN for recent years. hold on your imagination. You dont have geographic sense do you. TN is the second GDP economy after Maharashtra. I know about german food wastage law. also no water is wasted here. Most of pool use destination-ed water. so hold your horses Lol
 
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70 years of failure shows that india can't be an independent country. it should join china as a province before it's too late.
 
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There no Hunger death in TN for recent years. hold on your imagination. You dont have geographic sense do you. TN is the second GDP economy after Maharashtra. I know about german food wastage law. also no water is wasted here. Most of pool use destination-ed water. so hold your horses Lol
I have been to Chennai my friend. So yes geographically I don't think I am that foolish. Chennai looks like crap even for your so called second richest state in India, all along the road from airport to the city, you can see slums, and are you sure there are no hunger deaths in Tamil Nadu, my local friends tell me otherwise, I know the suffering first hand during the drought, if he knows you have a pool with water, he would be pissed. BTW desalinated water is drinking water genius.
 
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, all along the road from airport to the city, you can see slums, and are you sure there are no hunger deaths in Tamil Nadu,

Slum there but that doesn't mean there is hunger death. In TN you get 1kg rice for 1 rupee also there is amma canteen you food at very cheap rate. so hunger death is long gone.

my local friends tell me otherwise, I know the suffering first hand during the drought, if he knows you have a pool with water, he would be pissed. BTW desalinated water is drinking water genius.

Even in the drought water availability is not that bad. Only suburb is affected if is worst you will lot of unrest. Most of the resort use desalinated or recycled water which is not fit for drinking.
 
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Slum there but that doesn't mean there is hunger death. In TN you get 1kg rice for 1 rupee also there is amma canteen you food at very cheap rate. so hunger death is long gone.



Even in the drought water availability is not that bad. Only suburb is affected if is worst you will lot of unrest. Most of the resort use desalinated or recycled water which is not fit for drinking.
Don't tell me, this is straight from my Tamilan friend. He tells me some farmers died due to starvation caused by the drought but was not reported and classified as suicide. BTW stop bullshiting, desalinatined water is fit for drinking, recycled water is not unless you are in Sg. I am from SG for gods sake....
 
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Don't tell me, this is straight from my Tamilan friend. He tells me some farmers died due to starvation caused by the drought but was not reported and classified as suicide. BTW stop bullshiting, desalinatined water is fit for drinking, recycled water is not unless you are in Sg. I am from SG for gods sake....

I live in TN. farmers don't die out of starvation, they die due to bad debt .Iam Tamilian what you trying prove here. here desalinatined/ recyled water used in pools . this desalinatined water comes from private DM plant for pools
 
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I live in TN. farmers don't die out of starvation, they die due to bad debt .Iam Tamilian what you trying prove here. here desalinatined/ recyled water used in pools . this desalinatined water comes from private DM plant for pools
Yea... The tamil nadu desalination plant cost hoow much? Please check and they only use it for pools? Stop justifying your horrible actions while your countrymen suffer. No wonder you geniuses have no concept of shame, your people starve, while you idiots munch on biryani like a pig.... Ypu swim in a pool while your people go thirsty. Are you tambram or something?
 
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