India Insight:Rural demand and winter crop sowing

Rural demand had slowed over the past 2 years: The rural demand hadweakened significantly over the past couple of years, led by (a) scaling backof government spending to meet the fiscal consolidation targets; (b) slowingconstruction activity; (c) measured increase in minimum support prices(MSPs); (d) adverse terms of trade for the agricultural sector on falling globalcommodity prices; and (e) two consecutive deficient monsoons.