GS-III: Economy, Environment, S&T
Drought management
Not met yet — counts as met once you answer a question on it.
India's drought framework rests on the Manual for Drought Management (2016), IMD's Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), NDMA guidelines, State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF), and PM Fasal Bima Yojana as a risk-transfer instrument. A national rainfall deficit figure can mask severe regional droughts because crop and water outcomes depend on intra-seasonal rainfall distribution and timing, not aggregate totals. Chronic rain-shadow regions such as Marathwada face structural deficit aggravated by water-intensive cropping patterns — the rain-shadow mechanism and cropping-pattern mismatch explain why the same aggregate shortfall produces far worse outcomes there than elsewhere.