A great holiday in India – it rained every day

BOMBAY – From the parched deserts across the Arabian Sea, wealthy travellers come to India’s west coast every year to enjoy the rain.

Romanticised by Bollywood films and slick advertising, the Indian monsoon is a welcome option to the scorching sun at home. So they flock to luxury hotels in and around Bombay, and throughout the verdant southwestern states of Goa and Kerala.”The monsoon has always attracted large numbers of visitors from the Middle East, for whom it is a unique phenomenon,” said Rajiv Kaul, a general manager of Bombay’s landmark Taj Mahal hotel, owned by Indian Hotels Co Ltd.”It has been sold as an attractive season to visit India in, and we expect occupancy to rise by 15 to 20 per cent this season.”While hotels prepare to receive their rain-loving guests, who will make up half their leisure travellers during the June to September season, India’s motorcycle makers, cement producers and share traders also scan the skies and pray for a good monsoon.Consumer goods makers such as Hindustan Lever Ltd and Procter & Gamble India gear up for supply hiccups, but they also benefit from good rains.For not only does the monsoon make a great spectacle, but India’s economy withers if fine weather robs the country of its average rainfall, which in Bombay is 2 300 mm (90 inches) of rain over the four months.Few are expected to be disappointed this year, because the Indian weather office has predicted a normal monsoon.And the rains are expected to arrive any day in Bombay, where they will be an almost-daily feature for the next four months.Apart from a welcome relief from the heat, the rain means train delays and more flying pests.Yet even in a city where the sidewalks teem with life and commerce, it will still largely be business as usual.”The monsoon once meant flooded streets and illness,” said Kaul, recalling a season when heavy downpours sent waves lapping at the hotel’s steps.”But today, travellers know it has its own charms and that Bombay functions no matter how heavy the rains.”Outside Bombay’s busy Churchgate train station, bright blue plastic sheets have been stretched over roadside stalls selling tea and snacks.At the Bombay Stock Exchange, investors feel they have already been soaked.Political worries wiped US$50 billion off the market’s value in just over a month, though there is talk of a monsoon-led stock market rally.MONSOON MAGICThe new government says a good monsoon could mean the economy will match last year’s growth of more than eight per cent.Only a third of India’s arable land is irrigated, so the rains are a lifeline for the farms who form the backbone of the economy.After the worst drought in 15 years slowed growth in 2002, record rains last year made India one of the world’s three fastest-growing economies.Farms generate a quarter of the economy, and about two-thirds of the billion-plus people live off the land, so good rains mean higher rural incomes.The monsoon also sets the tone for the October-November festival season, the peak consumer buying time.”Cement, consumer goods, motorcycle makers and banks that lend to the rural sector are boosted by even a forecast of a good monsoon,” said Jaideep Goswami, research head at HDFC Securities.Equity investors have favoured tractor makers Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) and Escorts Ltd, motorbike maker Bajaj Auto Ltd and Jain Irrigation Systems, which is still benefiting from the last monsoon.Demand for tractors in India, the world’s largest market, will be driven by promises of cheaper farm credit.M&M shares have tripled in the past year and Escorts is up 17 per cent.Jain is expected to benefit from a second “green” agrarian revolution, which focuses on boosting the acreage of irrigated land.Its stock is up 23 per cent in the past 12 months.MONSOON BLUESBut capital markets also suffer from lacklustre trade on days when flooded tracks halt Bombay’s suburban train services, which carry half of the city’s 13 million residents to and from work.”Share volumes tend to dry up on those days,” said Navin Roy, a dealer at TAIB Securities.Heavy rains, which sometimes cause floods in the north, also hit supply networks.Hindustan Lever has used boats to send goods to some northeastern states when roads are blocked by landslides.HK Press, executive director and president of soap maker Godrej Consumer Products, said retailers stock less and customers buy less as they make fewer trips to the stores in the rain.PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, which do nearly half their bottled soda sales between March and June, tend to sell more hot coffee and tea to get around the Indian tradition of avoiding cold drinks during the rains.- Nampa-ReutersSo they flock to luxury hotels in and around Bombay, and throughout the verdant southwestern states of Goa and Kerala.”The monsoon has always attracted large numbers of visitors from the Middle East, for whom it is a unique phenomenon,” said Rajiv Kaul, a general manager of Bombay’s landmark Taj Mahal hotel, owned by Indian Hotels Co Ltd.”It has been sold as an attractive season to visit India in, and we expect occupancy to rise by 15 to 20 per cent this season.”While hotels prepare to receive their rain-loving guests, who will make up half their leisure travellers during the June to September season, India’s motorcycle makers, cement producers and share traders also scan the skies and pray for a good monsoon.Consumer goods makers such as Hindustan Lever Ltd and Procter & Gamble India gear up for supply hiccups, but they also benefit from good rains.For not only does the monsoon make a great spectacle, but India’s economy withers if fine weather robs the country of its average rainfall, which in Bombay is 2 300 mm (90 inches) of rain over the four months.Few are expected to be disappointed this year, because the Indian weather office has predicted a normal monsoon.And the rains are expected to arrive any day in Bombay, where they will be an almost-daily feature for the next four months.Apart from a welcome relief from the heat, the rain means train delays and more flying pests.Yet even in a city where the sidewalks teem with life and commerce, it will still largely be business as usual.”The monsoon once meant flooded streets and illness,” said Kaul, recalling a season when heavy downpours sent waves lapping at the hotel’s steps.”But today, travellers know it has its own charms and that Bombay functions no matter how heavy the rains.”Outside Bombay’s busy Churchgate train station, bright blue plastic sheets have been stretched over roadside stalls selling tea and snacks.At the Bombay Stock Exchange, investors feel they have already been soaked.Political worries wiped US$50 billion off the market’s value in just over a month, though there is talk of a monsoon-led stock market rally.MONSOON MAGICThe new government says a good monsoon could mean the economy will match last year’s growth of more than eight per cent.Only a third of India’s arable land is irrigated, so the rains are a lifeline for the farms who form the backbone of the economy.After the worst drought in 15 years slowed growth in 2002, record rains last year made India one of the world’s three fastest-growing economies.Farms generate a quarter of the economy, and about two-thirds of the billion-plus people live off the land, so good rains mean higher rural incomes.The monsoon also sets the tone for the October-November festival season, the peak consumer buying time.”Cement, consumer goods, motorcycle makers and banks that lend to the rural sector are boosted by even a forecast of a good monsoon,” said Jaideep Goswami, research head at HDFC Securities.Equity investors have favoured tractor makers Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) and Escorts Ltd, motorbike maker Bajaj Auto Ltd and Jain Irrigation Systems, which is still benefiting from the last monsoon.Demand for tractors in India, the world’s largest market, will be driven by promises of cheaper farm credit.M&M shares have tripled in the past year and Escorts is up 17 per cent.Jain is expected to benefit from a second “green” agrarian revolution, which focuses on boosting the acreage of irrigated land.Its stock is up 23 per cent in the past 12 months.MONSOON BLUESBut capital markets also suffer from lacklustre trade on days when flooded tracks halt Bombay’s suburban train services, which carry half of the city’s 13 million residents to and from work.”Share volumes tend to dry up on those days,” said Navin Roy, a dealer at TAIB Securities.Heavy rains, which sometimes cause floods in the north, also hit supply networks.Hindustan Lever has used boats to send goods to some northeastern states when roads are blocked by landslides.HK Press, executive director and president of soap maker Godrej Consumer Products, said retailers stock less and customers buy less as they make fewer trips to the stores in the rain.PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, which do nearly half their bottled soda sales between March and June, tend to sell more hot coffee and tea to get around the Indian tradition of avoiding cold drinks during the rains.- Nampa-Reuters