India logs heaviest 2014 rainfall in past week

India's monsoon rains were 64 per cent above average in the week to September 10, the weather office said on Thursday, the heaviest rainfall so far seen in this year's patchy season.

Rainfall turned 24 per cent surplus in the previous week after the June-September monsoon season broke a three-week-long lull that lasted until August 27.

The annual monsoon rains are vital because over half of the country's farmlands lack irrigation, and the farm sector accounts for 14 per cent of the economy.

The wet monsoon run across the Indian sub-continent since early September caused ruinous floods in Kashmir and killed 450 people in India and Pakistan.