By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, March 18 (IslamOnline.net) - India has began to brace for managing the fallout of an impending U.S. invasion of Iraq by activating a crisis management group (CMG) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after U.S. President George Bush 24-hour ultimatum late Monday, March 17.

The CMG on Iraq began functioning soon after Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons two days to leave Iraq or face military invasion.

Besides MEA officials, the CMG consists of officials from ministries of defense, oil, and civil aviation.

Monday’ s preliminary meeting was headed by MEA secretary RM Abhyankar.

As the countdown for war began, Indian embassy personnel in Baghdad moved into the Indian embassy in nearby Amman, the Jordanian capital.

The Baghdad embassy was left in the care of Saleh Ramadan, 70, who had held fort for India during the Desert Storm.

Ramadan’ s Kurdish antecedents have been played up by the media, creating the impression that the post-Saddam dispensation will have a large Kurdish profile.

Will one of the Kurds lead the show in coming years? That is a question often being asked by people discussing Iraq.

The Indian embassy in Iraq had about 10 Indian staffers at present but since Monday locals are running it.

The embassy will be kept open largely to serve Indians left in Iraq.

The Indian ambassador in Iraq, BB Tyagi, and his Indian staff will keep functioning from Amman till the situation normalizes.

Out of the 50-odd Indians, 31 have chosen to stay back of their own volition, including three nurses of Mother Teresa’ s Sisters of Charity, eight charity workers in Karbala, four students in Najaf, 14 businessmen in different parts of the country and two media correspondents.

The Indian economy is in the greatest danger of being hit if the war is not very short and effective.

With the current oil prices around $36-37 a barrel, the oil bill is barely manageable, but if it shoots up to around $ 50 a barrel (as many oil experts anticipate) the economy will go into a tail spin, kicking the entire national budget out of gear.

War fears sent the dollar crashing down to the lowest level in four years against the euro.

On a trade weighed basis, it has lost nearly 15 percent of its value over the last one year.

The nervousness generated by the dollar’ s fall can spread far and wide, causing serious destabilization.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan announced in Mumbai, the country's financial capital, that the Indian economy was strong enough to withstand shocks emanating from the war. However, traders preferred caution.

The civil aviation ministry was prepared on Tuesday, March 19, to airlift more Indians in case the situation so demanded.