The inflation data, which was released today, showed a steep fall in the food inflation at 4.35% – this is 4-year low.

True or False
Analyze yourself – when no food prices have fallen down then how come the food inflation came down to 4.35% – do you think it’s a fair data?

If we compare the food prices – nothing has dropped to 4-year low – then how come inflation is dipping…? Random food price comparison of sugar – wheat – oil – pulses and even salt has not dropped a single rupee – then also inflation is at 4-year low.

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If we see the rupee side – rupee is falling every day and then also inflation is low – how come it is happening? When our edible oil is all imported.

Government should stop misguiding the people – with their data manipulation. This will lead nowhere and with every such thing people will loose their trust on government.

Political parties who are opposing the FDI are not having any alternative plan to give it to the government – they simply don’t want. None of them have clarified their point of view that why FDI is not needed in retail.

If I say – FDI is needed in retail to bring down the market prices – would that be wrong? Bigger companies in retail would eventually work in bringing down the market prices and regulations – which are currently controlled by the middleman – so this would directly benefit the consumers.

Approx 7-8crore of population are earning their living through small shops and trading – so this is also true that they would be hard-hit by this. On the other hand, if we think about the rest of the population – which is actually 120crore – and struggling from ever-increasing inflation, would be relieved, if FDI comes in retail.

So, what should be the priority this is the point of discussion – and let 120-crore population be in benefit or not.

Easy Alternative for FDI in Retail
As opposition is working baselessly and opposing the FDI – they should come with any alternative plan.

The plan which I think currently could work is – You must have heard about the Canadian government giving easy visas to the foreign people – who are willing to invest in Canada but the only restriction they have is – you can’t take the profit back with you for 5-10years term and have to invest the profit in Canada.

Therefore, our government to regulate the FDI in retail can follow same plan. Make a regulation for FDI that whatever profit you make in the next 5 or 10years term – you can’t take those profits back in your country – you have to invest it in India only.

This would rather boom our economic structure – while opening a wide channel of growth and prosperity. Also, at the same this would decrease the inflation. It would be great for the common man of India.

More regulation for FDI
Government can implement some more regulation on FDI by imposing the fair pricing solution – which they would not sell products under-priced.

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Therefore, this would rather give a fair business environment for all and would act in the benefit of consumers.

How Will Inflation Fall
RBI has hiked interest rates (repo rate) 13times in 19months and every time there was an increase it was said that inflation would fall down. I don’t understand how the inflation will fall – when people would not have the money in hand and the commodity prices are on rise.

It will rather create a horrible situation in near future – when people will start selling their home – due to increased interest rates and non-payment of monthly home loan installments. That will be the time when real-estate bubble will burst and nothing could save it.

Falling Inflation
RBI assured this time that inflation will fall down in December 2011 – how untrue! The moment they said this – Sharad Pawar also issued a statement that ban on exports of sugar and onion will be abolished after diwali.

Master Stroke! Isn’t it?

As, exports are banned but sugar still costs around Rs.32/kg – so I do think every body can understand when exports open for sugar it will literally cross over Rs.40/kg. Same will be for onion.

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Inflation is the bigger issue but I don’t seem to understand that no channel and no group are fighting against it. Rather all are up to Jan-lokpal to stop corruption and what about the inflation?

As airline companies are already in loss and they seem to figure out that this is the best time to recover some of their costs. As per the reports available all flights are already packed.

For just a preview:
Chandigarh – Delhi = Rs.5000 (approx)
Lucknow – Delhi = Rs.8000 (approx)

Tour operators say that as the flights are already full-booked and airline companies have raised the prices for instant ticket booking.

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Therefore, if you are not in a mood to spend excessively on airfares – then spend this Diwali with your friends and relatives.

As per the reports, the rebel forces have killed Mummar Gaddafi. Many previous reports were published that Gaddafi has left the country and is been hiding some where in Zimbabwe.

Pictures of Gaddafi corpse has also been published by Al Jazeera – rebel forces have taken it to Misrata. Rebels were shown shouting and celebrating the moment – which they have been fighting it for.

TV Footage
Al Jazeera’s English broadcast clearly showed that rebels dragged the body of Gaddafi in to the streets. The footage showed half naked body of Gaddafi with blood on his face and to the worse – a bullet shot in his head.

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Gaddafi had been ruling Libya since last 42years. In the final combat with Gaddafi it is said that few of his near colleagues would also have been killed – but one of his son Mo’tassim has been captured live and taken to the prison. Another son, Saif – is still said to be hiding in the Libyan Sahara.

Aakash – is the name given for the tablet pc project. It is available at an extremely subsidized rate of Rs.1100 ($25).

What it Has?
This is a basic android device with not so good configuration. Though similar Chinese Tablet devices are already on Internet with almost same configuration.

• 7inch Screen
• 256 MB RAM
• 2GB Memory card storage
• TFT Touch Screen
• Android 2.2 Version

The Use
Government of India is basically projecting this device for the basic study usage – where students can read their books in the ebooks format and surf the Internet. This device comes with a battery backup of around 8hrs – which is pretty good.

Though this does not have any camera – and we do think that is not required in the student life. As they don’t have to do conference chatting on it and it’s purely an educational device.

The Future of Aakash
It does not look very bright because it is government-aided project – and this launch was basically an election stunt nothing more than that.

As per the government sources, this tablet will be available from December 2011.

Facebook was banned because Pakistani government feels that facebook is spreading the religious hatred in their country. Reports say, facebook was not the only one, which was banned – there were more websites that were banned.

Names of other websites are not clear yet! But it will soon be out.

Not Just Facebook
Google could also have been among banned websites in Pakistan! Yes! Pakistani government feels that they should put a ban on Google too.

But one or two officials from Pakistani government said that banning Google is not right, as it is one of the biggest search engines in the world.

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Previously we have seen China has also banned some of the leading websites. We do feel the relationship between China and Pakistan is increasing and this decision could be a part of their strategy.

Since, both of them want to stop the increasing awareness – which they feel could be harmful for their governance.

Purely a political decision.

Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that the military has not been able to locate the video within its files after being asked to authenticate the version available online.

“We had no reason to hold the video at (Central Command), nor did the higher headquarters in Iraq,” Hanzlik said in an e-mailed statement. “We’re attempting to retrieve the video from the unit who did the investigation.”

It’s the latest twist in a three-year saga that raises questions about the rules of engagement in battle and the safety of journalists sent to cover wars.

Advocates for increased government transparency also have questioned why the military withheld the video from the public, even though Reuters requested a copy through the Freedom of Information Act after watching it in an off-the-record meeting with the military in 2007.

The video includes audio of troops calling to “light ‘em up!” and referring to the men as “dead bastards.” An internal investigation concluded that the troops had acted appropriately, despite having mistaken the camera equipment for weapons.

“Clearly, it is unflattering to the military, but that is not justification for withholding it,” said Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy with the Federation of American Scientists.

The July 12, 2007, attack has been reported before. But Web site Wikileaks.org on Monday posted the video shot from one of the Apache helicopters, putting it on “collateralmurder.com” site.

Military officials said they believed the video was authentic, but that they had to compare the images and audio with their own video before confirming it publicly.

When pressed Tuesday on why the military had not released the video when other documents related to the investigation were made public, officials said they were still looking for it and weren’t entirely sure where it was.

The video was taken by the tactical unit that operated the helicopters. The unit has only been identified as a “1st Air Cavalry Brigade,” which reported to the Multinational Division in Baghdad.

By PAULINE JELINEK and ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

White House officials greeted the leak with a grimace, but none suggested they’d begin a witch hunt for the leaker. Woodward is famous for his access to the principals themselves — he recently traveled to Afghanistan with National Security Adviser James Jones — and leak hunters couldn’t expect with confidence that they’d find themselves disciplining just an undisciplined junior staffer.

But inside the White House and out, the leak touched off another familiar Washington ritual: speculation about the leaker’s identity and motives.

This is a capital parlor game that, for the Obama administration, has some dire implications. Unless the West Wing somehow orchestrated an elaborate head fake — authorizing what looks at first blush like an intolerable breach of Obama’s internal deliberations — the Woodward story suggests deeper problems for a new president than a bad news cycle.

Woodward — like other reporters, only more so — tends to shake loose information when he can exploit policy conflicts within an administration. There is now a big one over a critical national security decision, along with evidence that some people who ostensibly work for Obama feel they can pressure him with impunity. It took several years within former President George W. Bush’s administration before deep personal and policy fissures became visible.

So who did it?

The simplest theory — and one most administration officials Monday were endorsing — is that a military or civilian Pentagon official who supports McChrystal’s policy put it out in an attempt to pressure Obama to follow McChrystal’s suggestion and increase troop levels in Afghanistan.

But not everyone in Washington is a believer in Occam’s razor, so all manner of other theories flourished.

There are believers in the reverse leak, in which the leak itself is meant to damage McChrystal’s position by inducing White House anger at the general. There’s the fake leak, in which the White House may have been trying to back itself into a corner. A former government official with ties to the Pentagon said the talk in the building was that a senior military official had given it to the reporter for his book on the Obama White House — not realizing it could end up in print sooner.

“That places the ball clearly in the president’s court,” former Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen said, noting that Obama had already publicly placed his trust in McChrystal’s judgment.

“It’s an effort — whether by [McChrystal] or by somebody in the Pentagon or maybe the White House — to say, ‘You’ve asked the military to give you not what you want to hear but what you have to know. Now it’s up to you as commander in chief to decide if you think you have a better idea.’”

The leak is a shot across the bows, he said, of Vice President Joe Biden and of leading congressional Democrats who oppose a buildup in Afghanistan.

Another Clinton veteran with experience in national security matters was not so sure, however, that Obama wasn’t helped by a piece that lays the public ground for an inevitable troop escalation. “This thing has to have some airing and consideration by the public — so in the tactical sense, there’s a benefit to considering it,” the official said.

But some said all this speculation may be overthinking the matter. Many people in Washington, after all, are motivated by personal vanities as much as by policy convictions.

“It’s most likely someone who has or is cultivating a personal relationship with Bob Woodward and positioning himself to look good in Woodward’s next book,” said Matt Bennett, vice president at the Democratic-leaning think tank Third Way, echoing the views of many inside government and out.

The history of Woodward sources portrayed as heroes is long, including the likes of Colin Powell and, for a time, George W. Bush. But Woodward’s take on the Bush administration also changed dramatically with time, and some portrayed positively in his early books were savaged in the later ones.

Whatever the motive, the appearance of McChrystal’s report makes it more difficult for Obama to defer, through an extensive series of consultations, a decision over which side he will take in a debate over the recommendation of adding more soldiers and civilians to a more robust mission with the goal of giving Afghanistan — perhaps for the first time — a strong, functioning central government. The release follows a letter from a range of Obama’s usual critics — from neoconservative foreign policy thinkers to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Bush adviser Karl Rove — pressing Obama to follow just that policy.

“The Pentagon hasn’t changed and there are a lot of people within the Pentagon who understand the strategic use of the leak,” said Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the Democratic-leaning National Security Network. One possibility you have to look at is this being leaked by someone who is in league with the neocon assault on Obama, where anything short of ‘all in’ is framed as weak and a defeat.”

In the larger sense, the document’s contents are completely unsurprising — McChrystal’s views were widely known, and the assessment just spells them out. But giving the document to a brand name like Bob Woodward, who has a flair for the dramatic, ensures big play in The Washington Post and broad pickup by other media.

“This leak would, by all appearances, be the act of someone who supports an increase in troop strength and resources,” said Kevin Kellems, a communications director for former Vice President Dick Cheney, who noted that “the power of Woodward going on page A1 is exceptional” in its ability to dictate to wire services and cable outlets, a vanishing power of the newspapers. “This is the act most likely of a civilian who is an advocate of this position and believes they were right to do this because lives were at stake.”

Third Way’s Bennett, whose group backs a bigger commitment in Afghanistan, said he thought the document would do McChrystal’s position more harm than good.

“It’s not going to pressure the president to go the way they want him to go,” he said. “It’s going to annoy people in the White House, and that’s never a good idea.”

Others argued that the White House itself benefits from the leak.

“It’s a helpful thing to have out in the ether for the White House,” said Dan Senor, a former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, who said the report would help beat back criticism on the left. “I think the White House wants to convey how much pressure they’re under from the military,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t speculate on the source of the leak.

Others simply welcomed the fact that the leak might force a quicker decision on an urgent question.

“It at least, for the first time, gives people a tangible picture of what the recommended options are, and it to some extent forces the issue,” said Anthony Cordesman, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has been critical of an Afghan buildup. “The tendency in the White House is to try and slip this until health care and possibly the economy are taken care of, but nobody has that kind of time.”

By Ben Smith
Mike Allen and Kendra Marr contributed to this story.
Copyright: Politico.com

But astronomers, scientists and secularists are trying to play down claims of evil portent in connection with Wednesday’s natural spectacle, when the moon will come between the Earth and the sun, completely obscuring the sun.

In Hindu mythology, the two demons Rahu and Ketu are said to “swallow” the sun during eclipses, snuffing out its life-giving light and causing food to become inedible and water undrinkable.

Pregnant women are advised to stay indoors to prevent their babies developing birth defects, while prayers, fasting and ritual bathing, particularly in holy rivers, are encouraged.

Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynaecologist at the Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, said a number of expectant mothers scheduled for caesarian deliveries on July 22 had asked to change the date.

“This is a belief deeply rooted in Indian society. Couples are willing to do anything to ensure that the baby is not born on that day,” Gour said.

Astrologers have predicted a rise in communal and regional violence in the days following the eclipse, particularly in India, China and other Southeast Asian nations where it can be seen on Wednesday morning.

Mumbai astrologer Raj Kumar Sharma predicted “some sort of attack by (Kashmiri separatists) Jaish-e-Mohammad or Al-Qaeda on Indian soil” and a devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia.

An Indian political leader could be killed, he said, and tension between the West and Iran is likely to increase, escalating into possible US military action after September 9, when fiery Saturn moves from Leo into Virgo.

“The last 200 years, whenever Saturn has gone into Virgo there has been either a world war or a mini world war,” he told AFP.

It is not just in India that some are uneasy about what will transpire because of the eclipse.

In ancient China they were often associated with disasters, the death of an emperor or other dark events, and similar superstitions persist.

“The probability for unrest or war to take place in years when a solar eclipse happens is 95 percent,” announced an article that attracted a lot of hits on the popular Chinese web portal Baidu.com.

Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, dismissed such doomsday predictions.

“Primarily, what we see with all these soothsayers and astrologers is that they’re looking for opportunities to enhance their business with predictions of danger and calamity,” he told AFP.

“They have been very powerful in India but over the last decade they have been in systematic decline.”

Astronomers and scientists are also working to educate the public about the eclipse.

Travel firm Cox and Kings has chartered a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to give people the chance to see the eclipse from 41,000 feet (12,500 metres).

Experts will be on board to explain it to passengers, some of whom have paid 79,000 rupees (1,600 dollars) for a “sun-side” seat on the three-hour flight from New Delhi.

The eclipse’s shadow is expected to pass over the aircraft at 15 times the speed of sound (Mach 15), said Ajay Talwar, president of the SPACE Group of companies that promotes science and astronomy.

“It’s coming in the middle of the monsoon season. On the ground, there’s a 40 percent chance of seeing it in India. On the aircraft you have almost a 90 percent chance of seeing the eclipse,” he added.

Siva Prasad Tata, who runs the Astro Jyoti website, straddles the two worlds.

“There’s no need to get too alarmed about the eclipse, they are a natural phenomenon,” the astrologer told AFP.

But he added: “During the period of the eclipse, the opposite attracting forces are very, very powerful. From a spiritual point of view, this is a wonderful time to do any type of worship.

“It will bring about good results, much more than on an ordinary day.”

by Phil Hazlewood Phil Hazlewood
AFP