NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Monsoon rains, which delivers about 70 percent of India's annual rainfall, have arrived in southern Kerala coast on Tuesday, in line with forecast, the weather office said, brightening the outlook for higher farm output and robust economic growth.
"The southwest monsoon has set in over the southern state of Kerala, three days ahead of its normal date," state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.
The weather office said last month that India, where half of the farmland lacks irrigation, would likely receive average monsoon rains this year.
It declares the arrival of monsoon rains only after parameters measuring consistency of rainfall over a defined geography, intensity, cloudiness and wind speed are satisfied.
(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Malini Menon)
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