India's annual monsoon rains, crucial to its economy, advanced to Maharashtra and looks set to move up to Gujarat, the weather department said in a statement.The monsoon rains hit Maharashtra on Saturday, three days ahead of the usual time of arrival. The state is the largest producer of sugar and second biggest cotton and soybean producer.Conditions were favourable for the further movement of monsoon over some parts of Gujarat and remaining parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh during the next 2-3 days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement dated June 7.The four-month long monsoon season usually envelopes the entire country by mid-July, providing the main source of water for agriculture, which contributes about 17 percent to India's GDP.Good rains have helped Asia's third-largest economy to grow 9 percent in the past three years.Farming and related activities provide livelihood to more than two-thirds of India's 1.1 billion people. Good rains usually boost farm income, spur rural demand for a wide range of industrial goods from soaps to motorcycles.The IMD has forecast near-normal monsoon rains for 2008, at about 99 percent of the average between 1941 and 1990. This could provider a breather to the Government battling high inflation.India's wholesale price index rose 8.24 percent in the 12 months to May 24, the highest level in almost 4 years, driven in part by a spike in food prices.
