India’s erratic monsoon plays havoc with harvests, raising fears of spending slowdown

For Ajay Kumar Chutani, whose family has run a sari shop in the north Indian market town of Karnal since the 1970s, the months after the monsoon are always his busiest. During these cool weeks, he sells enough lengths of silk and embroidered cotton to tide him over the leaner seasons, as farming families prepare for weddings and the frenetic festival season. This year, after erratic rains through the wet season and the country’s weakest rainfall since 2015, Chutani is keeping a close eye on the...