Disaster risk reduction

The centre has sounded an alarm over the likely impact of El Niño on India's 2026 southwest monsoon, warning that 315 districts across 12 states could face significant rainfall deficits during the crucial kharif cropping season.

Fernando cautioned that declining leaf quality, driven by erratic weather, could soon trigger a broader collapse in quantity and output.

In a sobering assessment released this week, the United Nations has painted a complex portrait of Afghanistan under Taliban governance, where a dramatic increase in security incidents coincides with fragile stability, devastating cross-border violence with Pakistan, and a deepening humanitarian and human rights crisis.

For millions of Indians whose lives and livelihoods are tied to the rains, the coming weeks will be critical.

The report comes as India is in the grip of a escalating heat crisis and heatwaves are becoming more frequent, intense, and deadly, threatening lives, livelihoods, public health, agriculture, and economic productivity.

Pakistan’s experience mirrors global challenges, urging international cooperation on mitigation while building local resilience. In the blistering streets of Karachi, the human cost of inaction is measured not just in degrees, but in lives and livelihoods under threat.

The combination of erratic rainfall and rising temperatures is expected to increase both drought and flood risks during the same season.

For now, development agencies, implementing partners and beneficiaries across Bangladesh face an uncertain future as one of the country’s most significant sources of international development assistance comes to a sudden halt.