MUMBAI: When the grouping of Brazil, Russia , India, China and South Africa announced a plan to set up a Brics Bank last year, there were many doubters.Would it remain a fantasy of Asian politicians who wanted to display their growing clout in a world dominated by the West? Now, with ICICI Bank Chairman KV Kamath chosen as its first chief, the idea looks set to gain purpose and direction from the man credited with changing the face of Indian banking."Kamath’s deep understanding and diverse experience of financial markets, particularly the banking industry, make him a natural choice to head the Brics development bank," said Shikha Sharma, chief executive at Axis Bank.This higher growth rate continued last quarter too — though companies are unsure about the impact of the recent unseasonal rains on the current quarter sales.Hindustan Unilever, the country’s largest consumer products firm, has said market recovery will largely be dependent on rural India. Still, the weather and other factors will have a strong bearing on future performance."Why we called out rural was, that all the present things of the different variables — the unseasonal rains, the wages in rural India not increasing, the quantum of rainfall — we don’t know what the impact is going to be," said Sanjiv Mehta, managing director, said on an investor call. In the grape, pomegranate, onion and tomato hub of Malegaon in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, builder Deepak Modi was selling four-five flats a month last year.Today, he is struggling to find even one buyer. "The unseasonal rains have damaged pomegranates and other crops badly," said Modi, indicating that the people in the region don’t have the fiscal room to make big purchase decisions.Modi’s woes are echoed by sellers of motorcycles, clothes and white goods in small towns and villages across several states as well as luxury cars in Punjab. For most of them, the main customers are farmers and demand is directly related to agricultural income. The situation could become even worse if monsoon rain falls short, as some weather scientists see the likely emergence of the droughtcausing El Niño condition this year."Sales are down 40-50% from last May," said Deepesh Goyal, owner of Kalyan Suzuki, a dealer in Suzuki Motor’s two-wheelers in Agra. "Nearly 60-70% of our sales come from rural India. Farmers are defaulting on bank payments and are worried over how to get finance for the upcoming sowing season," Goyal said. The region has many potato farmers who are struggling as prices have crashed, as rains have reduced the shelf life of the tuber after a glut in production this season.In the mango-growing Malda district of West Bengal, motorcycle sales are down as much as 40%, dealers said. "Farmers do not have the paying capacity and even finance companies are not willing to participate. I have never come across this sort of a distraught situation," said Pankaj Mondol, owner of Ashalata Motorcycle, a local dealership. Mondol Electronics, a shop in Binuria village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, has seen a 30-40% drop in TV and refrigerator sales in the past two months, owner Pushpak Mondol said. "There is hardly any disposable income in the hands of people. They are not keen to make any investment at this juncture," he said.In the Vidarbha region, cotton, soya bean and orange farmers have been badly hit. There are no buyers for cotton and soya bean while the unseasonal rainfall has wiped out orange and sweet-lime production.Production of kesar mangoes, one of the main varieties exported from India, has suffered a substantial decline. For ice-cream makers, unseasonal rainfall delayed the onset of summer, when sales rise. "But, we are optimistic that demand will soon improve as temperature are rising," said Devanshu Gandhi, managing director of ice-cream maker Vadilal Industries. Farm woes have taken a direct toll on tractor sales. "Last year, during the month of May, we were selling 20 tractors. But now we are selling only 12," said Subhas Poddar, owner of Maruti Tractors at Arambagh in Hooghly district. At Mahindra & Mahindra’s farm equipment segment, domestic sales in April fell 19% from a year earlier to 17,006 units. The loss of the rabi crop has created "negative market sentiments", said Rajesh Jejurikar, president and chief executive of Mahindra’s farm equipment and two-wheeler division. Luxury car sales in Punjab and Haryana have taken a hit as well. "There is a perceptible decline in sales," said Manish, a luxury car dealer in Karnal. "But it is expected to be temporary."(Additional reporting by Madhvi Sally in New Delhi)