India looks likely to receive above average monsoon rainfall as concern over the El Nino weather condition has eased in the past few weeks, the chief of the weather office said on Tuesday, raising prospects of higher farm and economic growth. The state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) on April 18 forecast this year's monsoon rains at 96 percent of a 50-year average of 89 cm.

"Things have changed for good since then," KJ Ramesh, director general of the state-run India Meteorological Department, told Reuters in an interview.

The monsoon delivers about 70 percent of India's annual rainfall, critical for growing crops such as rice, cane, corn, cotton and soybeans because nearly half of the country's farmland lacks irrigation.

"We assessed 96 percent based on the climatological conditions up to March. Now, conditions are becoming favourable for an improvement over our April 18 estimate," Ramesh said.