President Barack Obama authorises plans to double number of US troops in Iraq

President Barack Obama has authorised US generals to more than double America’s troop deployment to Iraq in a significant escalation of the campaign against the Islamic State.

The Pentagon said Mr Obama had approved plans to send an additional 1,500 soldiers to Iraq on top of the 1,400 already deployed on a mission to train and support the country’s military.

The plan would mean nearly 3,000 US troops stationed in Iraq three years after the last soldiers withdrew in December 2011, in what was supposed to be the end of the war that began in 2003.

Although none of the Americans are being deployed in a combat role, the the expanded troop deployment is likely to raise cries of “mission creep” from sceptics of Mr. Obama’s  strategy for combating ISIL.

The Pentagon said the US military would establish two bases outside of Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdish capital, from which to support Iraqi and Kurdish fighters struggling against the jihadists.

The US will also set up training sites across the country to train nine Iraqi Army brigades and three brigades from the Peshmerga, the Kurdish fighting force.

“The commander-in-chief has authorised Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional US personnel over the coming months, in a non-combat role, to expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces,” said Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.

Adm Kirby said the training plan would “enable Iraq to better defend its citizens, its borders, and its interests against the threat of Isil”.

The US escalation comes as Iraqi forces struggle to push back Isil fighters despite the support of American aircraft.

Over the last two days, US and coalition jets hit Isil bulldozers building barricades near Fallujah and also attacked targets near Ramadi and Haditha.

The White House says it has the legal authority to fight Isil under the terms of a Congressional vote, known as an authorisation for the use of military force (AUMF), passed shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks more than a decade ago.

Mr Obama said this week he would ask Congress to pass a new AUMF, specifically tailored to the fight against Isil.

Members of Congress from both parties may try to use the new AUMF as a vehicle for limiting the number of US troops that can be deployed and the scope of their mission.

The White House plans to ask Congress for more than $5 billion for the campaign against Isil, including a $1.6 billion “Iraq Train and Equip” fund.

The deployment was announced on the tenth anniversary of the Second Battle of Fallujah, where dozens of US troops were killed in house-to-house fighting in 2004.

Fallujah fell to advancing jihadist forces early this year and today is under control of the Islamic State.

Top cleric raps army corruption, Suicide bomber kills Iraqi commander

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber in a truck packed with explosives killed a senior police commander involved in an

operation against Islamic State militants who have been surrounding Iraq’s biggest oil refinery for months, security sources said.

Friday’s attack killed General Faisal Malik, one of the supervisors of a campaign designed to break the Sunni insurgents’ grip on the facility and to rescue security forces trapped inside it just outside the town of Baiji.

Two policemen were also killed, the security sources said.

“The general was in his Humvee with two of his men. A suicide bomber in a truck targeted him directly,” said an officer under his command.

Iraqi security forces have repeatedly tried to push Islamic State fighters out of the refinery compound, where security forces have been surviving on airdrops.

The death of Malik came after Iraqi security tried a new strategy to break the Islamic State siege of the refinery near Baiji, which lies 200 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad.

Backed by Shi’ite militias and army helicopters, government forces have swept through a desert area west of Baiji, hoping to recapture the town and to cut off Islamic State supply lines.

Security forces were also hoping to gain control of a road leading to Mosul, the biggest city in the north which is held by Islamic State, according to an army colonel.

Islamic State fighters seized the city of Baiji and surrounded the sprawling refinery in June during a lightning campaign through northern Iraq. The group also controls a swathe of territory in neighbouring Syria and has proclaimed a caliphate straddling both countries.

The police general’s death was a psychological blow for the government after it had capitalised on U.S. air strikes against Islamic State and regained some territory.

CORRUPTION

The prime minister’s office said on Friday that security forces had hoisted the Iraqi flag on a bridge that connects to the town of Amriyat al-Falluja, 40 km (25 miles) from Baghdad.

It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation that government forces had advanced.

Islamic State fighters have been surrounding the area, located near the militants’ stronghold of Falluja, for weeks.

Western officials say Islamic State can only be defeated if the Iraqi army dramatically improves its performance.

Reflecting such concerns, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday the U.S. military had drawn up plans to significantly increase the number of American forces in Iraq beyond the current total of around 1,400 as part of a drive to help the Iraqi army defeat Islamic State.

Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite cleric blamed corruption in the armed forces for Islamic State’s advances, criticism that will add to pressure for reforms in the face of the insurgency.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has been sharply critical of Iraqi leaders during what has become Iraq’s worst crisis since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, urging them to set aside sectarian differences to save the nation.

Iraq’s army, recipient of $25 billion in U.S. training and funding, collapsed in the face of the rebels’ summer onslaught.

Speaking on Friday on live television through an aide in the holy southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, Sistani, 84, asked rhetorically what would happen if the military were corrupt.

“We think the security deterioration that happened some months ago can answer that,” Sistani said.

“Objectivity demands that the different military positions should be occupied by those who are professional, patriotic, faithful, courageous and not affected in doing their duties by personal and financial influences.”

Sistani, whose word is law for millions of followers, went on to say that “even the smallest corruption is big”. The reclusive cleric always delivers public messages via a proxy.

U.S. air strikes have prevented Islamic State making further large-scale advances since August, when the al Qaeda offshoot beat back Kurdish peshmerga forces in the north and triggered a massive exodus of minority communities.

Lacking a strong army, Iraq’s government turned to Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias. But their alleged violations of human rights have exacerbated sectarian tensions, with the Sunni minority complaining of kidnappings, torture and executions.

Sachin Tendulkar: I wanted to play till 2014

But the West Indies series made Sachin Tendulkar rethink his retirement plans, as Nalin Mehta found out in this exclusive interview.

When did you first entertain thoughts of retirement?

I was looking forward to the tours to South Africa in Dec 2013 and New Zealand in early 2014. But when the BCCI announced a two-Test series with the West Indies in Nov 2013, I had to rethink my plans. It was then – and I don’t know exactly how and when – that the thought of retirement came to me. I started to wonder whether those two Tests against the West Indies should be my last. I remember discussing it with (wife) Anjali and (brother) Ajit. We were sitting on the first floor lounge of my house when I told them that I was thinking about retiring after the West Indies series. The second Test would be my 200th and I would not have another opportunity to retire on home soil till the end of 2014, and I wasn’t sure if I could battle with injuries for that long. There was no point in dragging things out if my heart wasn’t in it.

You talk in the book about the immense pressures of being Tendulkar. How did you deal with it?

I have always liked the fact that people expected something from me, because it meant I was capable of delivering something. When I played cricket it was also about living up to my own expectations and play the way I wanted to play the game – with the right values, in the right spirit and without taking things for granted. I never changed my priorities. Everything happened around cricket and cricket was always the centre. The rest of the things continued happening around my game and my family kept it that way .

My manager, Mark Mascarenhas from WorldTel, understood me well. Being a huge fan of cricket, he did not want me to make compromises. If we were shooting an ad, he never said, “C’mon, let’s skip a practice session because they are giving us money .” The understanding was clear that during my cricket period nothing comes between me and my game. My family was extremely particular about this. This was a protective shell around me and it allowed me to forget about the outside world. Outside pressures were kept outside my territory and my territory was cricket..

How did you keep this bubble going?

In the 1996 World Cup, I was the only batsman in the team who didn’t have a sticker on his bat. Most others had ‘Four Square’ or ‘Wills’ but I didn’t want to endorse a tobacco brand. Then in the middle of a game, the manager of an MNC came to me and suggested that if I put his company’s sticker they would pay any amount I wanted. I turned it down because I didn’t want any distractions in the middle of the tournament. I did not want any alien element on my bat which could catch my eye on the pitch. I had done well without a sticker till then and didn’t want to risk my rhythm. We decided to wait till the tournament ended to fix the sticker.

You had your shell to protect you. But what happens when the fame and pressures start affecting your wife and children?

Arjun is 15 years old now and has faced this for a long time. So has Sara. In 2007, we had told Arjun, who was seven years old then, that if someone makes bad comments at school about our first-round exit from the World Cup, he should ignore it. But when a friend told him that India lost because his dad got out for zero, our advice went to his head. He punched his friend and told him never to say anything about his dad! At that time, reporters also asked him questions. It’s unfair on Arjun and he should be treated like any other 15-year-old now that he is playing his own cricket. People should judge him as an individual and not compare.

You write about how you changed your game for that wonderful Perth century in 1992…

Before that Perth hundred we had already spent two months in Australia, played four Tests and a triangular series. I count that innings as among my best because I made certain adjustments. I was making my debut at No. 4 and by that stage had mastered the backfoot punch. People talk about Perth being helpful for fast bowlers but I feel that once you get your eye in, Perth can also make a fast bowler’s life difficult. If a batsman knows how to use the length, then the bowler has a very small area as far as the good length spot is concerned. Because of bounce, if he falters on the shorter side you can cut or pull and if he is marginally fuller, then naturally you have to read the length and hit him on the rise. Perth is the kind of wicket where if you are in a positive frame of mind, it’s a beautiful track to bat on. If you are not very positive then it’s tough.

The most challenging bowler you ever faced?

There have been so many top players I have played since 1989. I can say there were at least 30 great bowlers that I have played against and it’s difficult to pinpoint one guy as the best.

How can you differentiate between a Glenn McGrath or a Curtley Ambrose or a Shaun Pollock? They were all accurate and consistently bowled in that corridor, with a nagging length, where you couldn’t attack them on the front foot. Neither could you pull or cut on the back foot. They had mastered that length. For that matter, how do you differentiate between Malcolm Marshall and Richard Hadlee or Imran Khan? All these are great bowlers so I just consider myself fortunate that I was able to play against the top all-rounders and bowlers of the ’70s and ’80s: Malcolm Marshall, Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan. In the next generation you had Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Allan Donald, Courtney Walsh and others.

But who made you the most uncomfortable?

The one bowler I didn’t feel comfortable batting against was Hansie Cronje.

Why him?

I don’t know. There was something. Early on, when someone like Allan Donald is bowling with strike bowlers such as Brett Shultz, Craig Matthews and Brian McMillan, you had to stay focused and respect how they were bowling. Then when you get someone who is just going to bowl 2-3 overs to give the strike bowlers a rest, then you want to put pressure on him. Later, I tried to play him differently. I tried to block, to leave, to slog and to play my normal game but somehow kept getting out to him.

The one thing that didn’t work very well was your captaincy. You say you didn’t get a free hand…

Captaincy left me bruised. I always wanted the best team but many times the selectors wanted to promote zonal quotas. In South Africa in 1996, I wanted Abey Kuruvilla to play with Venkatesh Prasad and Srinath but I didn’t get him. He did very well later in West Indies and not taking him to SA was a mistake.

Who is the best captain you have played against?

Nasser Hussain was the best. He was very proactive, even though he used Ashley Giles against me negatively. He had the ability to think out batsmen and would do very good field placements. I also have a lot of regard for Graeme Smith.

And among the Australians?

Michael Clarke was the best. In 1992, I was about to pick up a ball to toss back to the bowler when Allan Border told me, “Don’t you dare touch the ball.” It was an early lesson in how competitive Australians are. But I was too young to judge him as a captain. Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting had great teams. Clarke had to rebuild his team from scratch.

buy the Google Nexus 6 at Rs 44,000

Then you hear that Google is coming up with a new Nexus phone, it’s not just any other smartphone and you can

guarantee people will sit up and take notice. It’s more than just the Google backing – the company is known for prepping up the phone with the best hardware at affordable prices. This meant that you could buy a high-end flagship at a mid-end price, making flagship Android devices by other manufacturers look awfully overpriced in comparison.

Google could afford to have smaller profit margins on its phones as it already makes money from the content sold through Android and the Play store. Buying the phone directly from the Google Play store also takes the retailers and network providers out of the picture, which again benefits Google.

For Android lovers, Nexus phones are a no-brainier – running ‘stock’ Android, one could almost guarantee top-notch performance that provides great value for money.

But Google has taken a different direction with the Nexus 6. Priced at over 40k, it comes with premium features, but with a price to match. One of the most obvious outcomes to this is that consumers will compare the Nexus 6 with other flagships and weigh out their options before pinning down on the Nexus 6.

Here’s what the Tech 2 team had to say after Google announced their Indian prices of the Nexus 6:

Alina Lewis

I am not exactly a fan of phablets, so the 6-inch display of the Nexus 6 is already a deal breaker for me. It’s a shame that the price puts it in the league of expensive handsets, which will further narrow down its audience. Had it come from Samsung or LG, I would have understood the steep asking price. But the fact that Google has practically no physical retail stores and that it makes money from services and not hardware, I don’t think the price is justified.

What might just work in its favour is the fact that the Nexus 6 will come with Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box. Coupled with the large screen and best-in-class hardware, it should be on the wishlists of all those who enjoy consuming media on their smartphones.

Nimish Sawant

I wouldn’t buy the Nexus 6 (32GB) at Rs 44,000. Agreed, the Nexus 6 has got a complete makeover in terms of screen resolution, battery capacity,system-on-chip and so on. When we compare the Nexus 6 with other flagship phablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (Rs 56,000) and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus (Rs 62,500), the Rs 44,000 price tag is still relatively economical. I was more surprised by the fact that Google launched an almost 6-inch phablet as its flagship device. Sure, over the years we have seen a gradual bump in the screen sizes – Galaxy Nexus at 4.65-inches, Nexus 4 at 4.7-inches, Nexus 5 at 4.95-inches. So a jump to 5.2-inches or even 5.5-inches would have seemed logical going by the trend. A massive 1-inch jump in screen size seems quite strange.

One may argue that the screen size makes sense considering the 2560×1440 pixel resolution, but frankly speaking is there really a need for such a high resolution on a phone. A Samsung or an LG going for phones with such resolutions is still understandable, but Google having it on its flagship dosen’t make sense. How many Android apps do you think will be compatible with the native Nexus 6 resolution at launch? We all know how bad the stretched apps look on a high res screen. That is one of the major things one should consider with such high resolution phones.

Look at the design of the Nexus 6 and compare it with the second generation Motorola Moto X – dosen’t it just look like a stretched out and specced up version of the Moto X? Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 at least weren’t this blatant replicas of other devices. The least someone spending over Rs 40,000 can expect, is a unique looking device. That’s not the case with the Nexus 6. The 5.96-inch screen size means that one handed operation is out of the question. That itself, for me and many others, will be a big turn off.

I would rather go for the second gen Moto X (at Rs 32,000) which is like a mini Nexus 6, especially considering it will get the Android Lollipop update within a month.

Naina Khedekar

Well, I am disappointed with the pricing. While I spent a lot of time making up my mind to choose between Nexus 5 and the original Moto X, the Nexus 6 came across as a reason good enough to hang on for a while. A pure-blood droid with slightly premium specs like a mammoth sized 5.96-inch display, 2560 x 1440 pixels of resolution, Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 and Android 5.0 Lollipop – the Nexus 6 no way looked like an affordable mid-ranger. However, knowing what the brand Nexus is all about, I did expect it to be priced somewhere between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000. Now, it may be cheaper than other phablets from seasoned OEMs, but for me it’s more about ‘how can a Nexus device be so expensive?’ After all, it’s all about bringing possibly the best package at an affordable price. The price tag of over Rs 40,000 is something I cannot fathom. On second thoughts, I’m not really sure if I’d like the huge display size either. For now, the Moto X second generation seems like a better option.

Aaron Pereira

When I bought the LG Nexus 4, it was primarily because it was a Google phone that offered me updates the quickest and at a very decent price. But as the updates kept pouring in, and I would expect the performance to better, I found the phone performance dropping drastically. The worst issue was when the soft keys on the Nexus 4 stopped functioning, without it being dropped a single time.

Now that Google is selling the Nexus 6 at Rs 44,000 – a far-off price from its otherwise economic pricing range – upgrading to it seems pretty unlikely for me, given my first experience with a Google product.

While the features may be enhanced, I don’t see myself spending so much when my usage can well be satisfied by phones in the Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 range. With phones such as the Asus Zenfone5, Motorola Moto G (2nd gen) and so on, offering enough for me, I’d be willing to sacrifice a pure Android experience for a phone that’s almost half the rate.

Jaitley was unwilling to take the fight to Chidambaram, and the latter won by default.

Last night (7 November) one waited eagerly for fireworks to erupt as Headlines Today lined up two finance

ministers – one present and one past – to spar in what was billed as “The Clash of Titans”. Organised in the context of a book on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections – a cracker of an election – by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, the battle turned out to be a friendly sparring match between Arun Jaitley and his predecessor P Chidambaram.

Both were apparently a bit nervous, given that the journo anchoring the show was Karan Thapar, who is not known to beat around the bush or try and be too soft on anyone. While Jaitley sat through the debate with a near-perpetual frown on his face, Chidambaram appeared cool, but underneath the easy façade he was often seen restlessly flapping his fingers.

Much was expected from the verbal bout, as both men are articulate and masters of the art of the debate. But the “Clash of the Titans” turned out to be a pillow-fight on a mattress between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. If Chidambaram had been the current finance minister and Jaitley that of the UPA, you wouldn’t know the difference. Both of them tried hard to avoid punching the other anywhere it hurts, and the occasional mistimed jab was quickly deflected.

Jaitley set the tone for non-lethal sparring when he denied saying he had inherited an economy in “shambles”. He refused to accept the word and said he meant he had inherited a “challenging” situation – which a happy Chidambaram was glad to concede, pointing out he too had inherited a challenging economy in 2004.

Even when the anchor repeated the word “shambles” to goad Jaitley into the ring, he jumped out of it into a non-combat zone. He weakly tried to counter Chidambaram by saying the Vajpayee government had left behind a fast-growing economy, but his opponent deflected this minor thrust by saying he inherited an economy that grew at an “average” of about 5-5.5 percent. By talking averages, Chidambaram also cleverly avoided having to acknowledge the reality of the legacy he himself left behind: an economy that was growing below 5 percent in the last two years of his stewardship of North Block. Chidambaram was too clever for Jaitley in this round.

Overall, Chidambaram won on points, and quite clearly his mastery of words and experience of running the finance ministry for nearly a decade (over three different periods) and by presenting nine budgets, showed through. Jaitley is nobody’s fool, but his unwillingness to wound or confront his opponent showed him up as relatively less experienced novice.

If the economic debate was insipid, the political part of it elicited more than passing interest, and here Chidambaram offered views that made the headlines today (8 November). Manmohan Singh, he said, could have stopped A Raja from issuing the telecom licences (later cancelled by the Supreme Court), but Jaitley failed to point out Chidambaram’s own role in the 2G spectrum controversy.

In a letter to the PMO in mid-January 2008, just days after Raja went ahead and issued the 2G licences, Chidambaram himself suggested that Raja’s allotment of spectrum at 2001 prices should be treated as a “closed chapter.” Nor did Jaitley point out that the spectrum could have been cancelled even till end-February. In fact, a later note from Pranab Mukherjee’s finance ministry said both Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram could have stopped Raja. Raman Kirpal wrote in Firstpost at that time: “Both Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh were in position to stop Raja from signing the deals as the latter had only issued 122 letters of intent (LOIs) on 10 January 2008. The licences were still to be given. But given the silence of the Prime Minister, Raja went on signing licence agreements on the basis of the 122 LOIs even a month after Chidambaram’s note to the Prime Minister.”

Jaitley also failed to point out that Chidambaram himself cleared the high-premium sale of shares by Swan Telecom and Unitech to foreign partners when their only asset was the cheap spectrum allotted by Raja. This clearly established the fact that spectrum was sold for a song – and thus the Raja decision prima facie mala fide.

Quite clearly, Jaitley was unwilling to take the fight to Chidambaram, and the latter won by default.

Even on the issue of retrospective taxation of Vodafone, another UPA legacy, Jaitley took a blow to the head and failed to give it back. When the anchor pointed out a claim in Sardesai’s book that Pranab Mukherjee introduced the retrospective tax almost without consulting Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram got away by saying he was in the home ministry at that time, and made a general observation that the budget is usually decided between the PM and the FM, with the rest of the cabinet having almost no role to play in it.

Chidambaram even claimed the high ground by saying that if had had 282 seats in parliament, as the BJP did now, he would have repealed the retrospective law. Jaitley said little, embarrassed by this point, but he could have asked why Chidambaram didn’t do so when he had the chance in 2013. It is not as if the UPA had a problem with passing any budget in any of its 10 years in power. Jaitley allowed him to get away with the claim that he could not change the law in the 2013 budget as he would have been accused of selling out to Vodafone. This is, of course, hogwash. Chidambaram planned to push key proposals through even in the 2014 interim budget. It wasn’t as if he could not have modified the retrospective tax without a majority in parliament.

To make matters worse, Chidambaram even rubbed it in by congratulating Jaitley for asking the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to stop making sensational statements, saying this advice to the CAG was good though it had come a bit late. By making this statement to a CAG conference, Jaitley effectively allowed the Congress party – which has always been anti-CAG for showing up its lapses in CWG, 2G and Coalgate – to claim victory.

What the debate proved was that there was very little to choose between Chidambaram’s world view and Jaitley’s, and that both are part of the Delhi insider consensus on economic policy and centrist politics. Neither wanted to show up the other, thus giving credence to the oft-repeated claim that the NDA was little more than UPA with “saffron lipstick” – the latter remark being made on Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar in the context of Jaitley’s 2014-15 budget last July.

In many ways, Jaitley has been Narendra Modi’s go-to man. He has been the most powerful minister in the cabinet (a position that could change with defence now set to go to Manohar Parrikar) both because he has been a strong defender of Modi in regard to 2002, and also because he is Modi’s channel to Delhi’s elite.

But this is a double-edged sword. Jaitley’s acceptability in Delhi’s power elite both helps and hinders Modi’s agenda of bringing about a change in power structure. It helps by giving Modi an inside access to Jaitley’s connections, but it probably hinders more by making the NDA seem like nothing more than UPA with more effective Prime Minister.

If the attractiveness of Modi to voters is that he is an outsider to Delhi and can thus be trusted to uproot the old cosy Delhi consensus and shake things up, Jaitley is his Achilles Heel. He is part of the old establishment in more ways than one.

RBI Dy Governor HR Khan: Recent fall in inflation does not mean decline is permanent

MUMBAI: Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor HR Khan poured cold water on corporate India’s hopes that a lower interest rates cycle could begin in December, saying the recent fall in inflation does not mean the decline is permanent.

The fall in price of crude oil and other commodities is beneficial to the Indian economy, but policy makers cannot jump to the conclusion that the trend was firmly established. “Inflation still has a long way to go,” the deputy governor told the audience at a chief financial officers’ summit organised by industry body CII.

“Structural issues like input costs, wage burden, food prices, protein-driven inflation, and rural areas are witnessing wider inflation pressures.” At the India Economic Summit in Delhi earlier this week, corporate leaders, including Anand Mahindra of the tractor-to-financial services conglomerate M&M, were vociferous in demanding that RBI lower interest rates since consumer prices are softening. Central Bank Prefers Wait and Watch Policy

“It might be time for the RBI to think of a rate cut,” Mahindra said a few days ago. “The need of the hour has changed and it’s time to start to look to support growth.”

However, the central bank which is targeting 6% CPI by January 2016 is still hesitant saying that its model forecasts CPI at 7% by March 2016. Also, the base effect could peter out in the next few months, and CPI could begin its climb again. crude oil requirements.

With the slowdown in Chinese economy and the oil countries cartel — the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — unlikely to resort to production cut to boost prices, the chances of rebound in prices is unlikely, many analysts believe. Consumer price inflation slowed down to 6.46% in September, on lower food and fuel inflation.

Governor Raghuram Rajan has kept the benchmark repo rate at 8% after three increases since taking over in September 2013. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has also pitched for a rate cut on the back of stabilising inflation. Bond markets are already pricing in a rate cut with the benchmark 10-year yield dropping below 8.2% this week. But Khan made it clear that RBI would prefer to wait and watch commodity prices for a while.

“A fall in global crude oil prices is a boon for India,” said Khan. “When the global recovery is also tepid and there are many geopolitical issues, we need to be cautious when we celebrate early and we cannot be an outlier, particularly, in terms of inflation from among the BRIC countries.”

Dr Harsha Vardhan gives prominence to alternative medicine

Finally Ayurveda, the ancient science of India might get its required attention. Health minister Dr Harsha Vardhan has taken necessary steps to ensure the same. In this context the nearly dozen upcoming All India Institutes of Medical Sciences across the country will have ‘huge’ departments of alternative medicine with a special focus on ayurveda, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said Friday.

‘We want to ensure that ayurveda gets proper recognition in modern day science,’ Harsh Vardhan said at the 6th All India Congress on ayurveda here. He also mentioned that creating huge departments of Ayush in the modern AIIMS will aid for holistic development of medicine and healing. Here are some of the benefits of living life the Ayurvedic way. According to Dr Harsha Vardhan, Ayurveda has given to the world most of the things which modern medicine wasn’t adapt to. Modern medicine came up with solutions to most human problems after Ayuveda had presented the solutions for the same. He also informed that government had been keen to provide Ayurveda with its requisite attention since the independence. Here are seven types of ayurvedic massages one should know about.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who was also present said that there are numerous methods in Ayurveda but these have not been tapped properly. She also informed that to ensure better research and work is done on the field of Ayurveda the government is exporting more raw material than finished drugs and goods. She said there is a need to ensure a comprehensive quality control mechanism as far as Ayurvedic drugs are concerned.