Ritu Bharadwaj is senior researcher and Simon Addison is principal researcher in IIED's Climate Change research group Accurate weather information and good climate governance are essential for local Indian communities to adapt to new weather patterns caused by climate change (Photo: Knut-Erik Helle via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0) Drought in India is triggered not only by deficient rainfall but also by erratic rainfall: more days with higher rainfall, longer dry spells between heavy rainfall events, and delayed monsoons – a pattern that is becoming more frequent with climate change. Local communities and national agencies need short-term, seasonal and long-term climate forecasts to help them prepare for, cope with and recover from drought. But the way climate information is managed in India presents challenges: people are not receiving the right data in the right way and at the right time to be able to understand, interpret and act on it.