Climate modes like ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) and IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) produce an impact on the monsoon rainfall over India. Monsoon rainfall is extremely important for the agriculture of our country. The impact of these climate modes on monsoon rainfall thus in turn affects the rain-fed crops (Kharif). In this study, four Kharif season crops namely Rice (Oryzasativa), Maize (Zea mays), pulses and sugarcane (Saccharum o cinarum) are chosen over four arid/semi-arid agro-climatic zones of western India to study the effect of the climate modes on selected crops. The detailed analysis has been carried out to show the impact of El Nino/La Nina (phases of ENSO) and IOD years on the crop productions over the mentioned zones viz. (Central plateau & hills region; Western plateau & hills region; Gujarat hills and plains region; Western Dry region) from 1966-2011. Rice production has been largely affected during drought years associated with El-Nino. The production of Pulses shows marginal improvement during the neutral years or non-El Nino/non-La Nina. The Maize production seems to be better in La Nina years as compared to neutral years and worst in the El Nino years. El Nino years provides a minor impact on Sugarcane productions in different zones. La Nina years are well suited for sugarcane production in any zones of our study. Positive IOD years are associated with poor crop productions as compared to negative IOD years mostly in all zones due to the co-occurrence of positive IOD years with El Nino. The correlations between positive IOD and rainfall are much weaker as compared to the correlations between the El Nino and rainfall in the years of co-occurrences over the zones making El Nino much more in uential than positive IOD events.

PurposeThis paper aims at assessing the impact of innovation on productivity as sustainable development can be attained primarily through non-resource-driven growth. Secondly, it also proposes to reflect on the rising capital intensity in the Indian industries as technology advancement, particularly in the light of the fourth industrial revolution, is expected to reduce the labour absorbing capacity of the industrial sector.Design/methodology/approachBased on panel data for different Indian firms in various groups of industries, this paper estimates TFPG and TE (following Cornwell et al. methodology) and assesses the impact of R&D expenditure on the performance indices. Secondly, it measures the capital intensity across various groups of industries to reflect on the “employment problem”.FindingsInnovation does not seem to enhance the performance index in a very significant manner across industry groups considered in the study. The lack of extensive evidence on impact of innovation on total factor productivity growth suggests that innovation does not necessarily result in technological progress while the need of the hour is to experience non-resource-driven growth on the one hand and employment growth on the other. The positive impact of innovation on efficiency as seen in the paper can be interpreted as the expenditure incurred to realize the potentiality of the technology which is possibly imported. However, capital accumulation is resulting in rapid productivity growth at the cost of employment.Research limitations/implicationsCapturing technological progress in terms of TFPG can be subjected to criticism.Practical implicationsPolicy implications for employment generation and inclusive growth are derived.Social implicationsThe study cautions us about the adverse implications in terms of employment growth.Originality/valueAssessing the impact of innovation on performance such as TFPG and TE is rather rare in the literature, and this paper tries to reflect on this aspect using the Indian firm-level data. Secondly, the trade-offs between productivity growth and employment growth are brought out distinctly in order to highlight the declining labour absorbing capacity of the industrial sector. This enables us to reflect on the adverse consequences of the fourth industrial revolution.

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