Rainfall seasonality, droughts, and business

Many parts of the world are subject to seasonal rainfall that provides a major part of the water supply to support agrarian systems and various life forms. Climate change is inducing greater variability in the distribution of rainfall and posing a major livelihood crisis on a global scale. How have businesses reacted to such climatic fluctuations in the past and the present? This chapter outlines the interaction of businesses with seasonality by focusing on India, an economy heavily dependent on monsoon rainfall. It studies the financial sector in colonial India and its interaction with monsoon seasonality and the evolution of the massive borewell business involved in the extraction of groundwater. While borewells raised agricultural productivity, reduced poverty, and provided an immediate solution to overcome seasonality and water stress, their long-term sustainability has been questioned as groundwater tables plunge, underscoring complex cycles in the interaction between business and climate change.