India, Feb. 14 -- Just as scientists around the world were beginning to understand the complex and mysterious Indian monsoon - one of the most powerful weather systems in the world - "we've been hit with climate change, which makes understanding it all the more complicated," says Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, 63.

If there were ever a time for an updated reference book on the summer monsoon, he adds, it is now.

Rajeevan - who has been studying the monsoon for nearly 40 years, retired as secretary with the union ministry of earth sciences, and is currently vice-chancellor of Atria University, Bengaluru - has co-authored such a book, due out this month.

South Asian Summer Monsoon: Processes, Prediction, and Societal Impacts (written with Partha...