New Delhi, June 18 -- The southwest monsoon will advance into Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and parts of Chhattisgarh over the next four to five days, the India Meteorological Department said on Thursday, as nearly two-thirds of the districts continue to report deficient or large-deficient rainfall through mid-June.

Data for 1-17 June showed 239 districts with deficient rainfall and 230 with large-deficient rainfall across the 741 districts-a marginal improvement from the previous day's tally of 245 deficient and 214 large-deficient districts. The monsoon, which arrived in Kerala on 4 June, three days behind schedule, has so far covered Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, most of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, parts of Maharashtra, Tel...