India News : Monsoon rains could ease next week over the main crop areas after heavy downpours in the first month of the June-September season, weather officials said, speeding up planting of summer crops.br Rains were 4 per cent above average in the week that ended on July 3, data from the weather office showed on Thursday, reflecting a slowdown from torrential downpours early in the season that had caused fatal floods in many parts, mainly in northern India.