This week, the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed a hundred days in office.
Mr Modi, just as any good politician would, has used this occasion to list his administration’s achievements over the past three months. But the reality is that it has been a largely underwhelming period for him and his Bharatiya Janata Party, reined in by feisty coalition partners and confronted by a buoyant opposition.
This has raised questions about whether the BJP can find a way to push its agenda in this new political environment, or whether the once-bedraggled Indian National Congress – the country’s leading opposition party – can construct a counternarrative that resonates with a significant portion of the electorate in future elections.
That is still unclear, but the fact is that the playing field is more even that it’s been over the past decade.
About a hundred days ago, Mr Modi became only the second Indian prime minister, after Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962, to be sworn in for a third consecutive term.
As a keen student of history, he appeared to savour the moment, but it was a bittersweet one. For unlike the previous two terms, he was now having to rely on a handful of small parties to stay in power. The fall in the BJP’s tally of seats in the lower house of Parliament after this year’s general election, from 303 to 240, was being viewed by many politicians and pundits as a repudiation from the voters.
Mr Modi himself tacitly acknowledged this in his first post-election speech, when he called the incoming administration the “NDA government” – NDA stands for National Democratic Alliance, of which the BJP is the largest constituent – rather than “my government”. It seemed to be a significant departure from 2014, when his most ardent followers would often remind other senior BJP leaders on social media to refer to the newly inaugurated administration as the “Modi government”.
Nonetheless, old habits can be hard to get rid of.
The Prime Minister’s Office continues to function as it did over the past decade: in a highly centralised, top-down manner. The most important portfolios, including home, finance, foreign affairs and defence, have been allocated to the same ministers who held them for the previous five years. And for what it’s worth, national media outlets call the new administration “Modi 3.0”. It’s as if little has changed – which is the point being conveyed as part of a carefully crafted strategy to show that Mr Modi is still in complete charge.
In Parliament, however, it is a different story. The newly elected leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, and his colleagues in the Congress party have countered the government’s agenda every step of the way. Some days, Mr Gandhi would be found on the floor of the lower house, making a compelling case against a government policy. On others, he would be out on the streets, doing retail politics, including meeting the spouses of fallen soldiers and providing succour to victims of casteist and sexual violence.
This newfound spring in the opposition’s steps isn’t just cosmetic. It has delivered serious blows to the BJP’s agenda in recent weeks, forcing it to climb down regarding two important bills and one amendment on government jobs. Tellingly, in two of these instances, key NDA partners of the BJP threw their weight behind the opposition’s concerted objections.
If the government’s domestic agenda has been curtailed for now, Mr Modi’s gains on the foreign policy domain have been mixed.
The challenge for Mr Modi is that he has never before had to collaborate with other parties
He can rightly point to the significant agreements his government signed with the UAE and Singapore in recent weeks. But the Prime Minister’s long-held goal to facilitate talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the war in Eastern Europe hit a set back once again after Kyiv reportedly expressed unhappiness with New Delhi’s improved trade ties with Moscow since the start of the war in 2022. The fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh would also count as a concern for India.
Back home, even as the government’s legislative agenda remains in limbo, it is worth pointing out that it has cleared a number of big-ticket projects, particularly infrastructure projects, across the country. It has unveiled important missions to improve digital penetration and literacy, and it recently signed a peace deal with separatist groups in the border state of Tripura.
However, the challenge for Mr Modi is that he has never before had to collaborate with other parties. During his 13 years as chief minister of Gujarat and the subsequent 10 years as Prime Minister, he enjoyed legislative majorities that allowed him to run the executive with minimal checks and balances. That’s not the case any longer.
The current reality is just as novel to Mr Gandhi as it is to Mr Modi.
After a decade of consistently falling short against the Prime Minister’s towering persona, the Congress leader appears to finally be catching up to him as recent opinion polls suggest. His age – he is 20 years younger to Mr Modi, who turned 74 today – is a big draw with the country’s youth.
But what truly stands him apart from other leaders is his focused struggle to save the ideals enumerated in India’s Constitution, particularly secularism and egalitarianism. He has made his political career an ideological crusade against Hindutva – or political Hinduism – that underpins the BJP’s vision and mission for the country.
But as the political analyst Asim Ali writes, Mr Gandhi needs to start talking about some of the bread-and-butter issues that directly affect voters to expand his base. With India’s unemployment rate at 9.2 per cent, providing solutions to help create tens of millions of new jobs every year is a no-brainer. Yet beyond a few stray remarks, he hasn’t come up with a coherent policy to deal with one of India’s greatest challenges.
How the next hundred days – and more importantly, the next four years and nine months – pan out will largely depend on two factors: how Mr Modi handles coalition politics, and how well Mr Gandhi fine-tunes his party’s economic agenda for the country.
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
FA Cup quarter-final draw
The matches will be played across the weekend of 21 and 22 March
Sheffield United v Arsenal
Newcastle v Manchester City
Norwich v Derby/Manchester United
Leicester City v Chelsea
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
Everton%20Fixtures
%3Cp%3EApril%2015%20-%20Chelsea%20(A)%3Cbr%3EApril%2021%20-%20N.%20Forest%20(H)%3Cbr%3EApril%2024%20-%20Liverpool%20(H)%3Cbr%3EApril%2027%20-%20Brentford%20(H)%3Cbr%3EMay%203%20-%20Luton%20Town%20(A)%3Cbr%3EMay%2011%20-%20Sheff%20Utd%20(H)%3Cbr%3EMay%2019%20-%20Arsenal%20(A)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
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T10 Cricket League
Sharjah Cricket Stadium
December 14- 17
6pm, Opening ceremony, followed by:
Bengal Tigers v Kerala Kings
Maratha Arabians v Pakhtoons
Tickets available online at q-tickets.com/t10
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the most popular virtual currency in the world. It was created in 2009 as a new way of paying for things that would not be subject to central banks that are capable of devaluing currency. A Bitcoin itself is essentially a line of computer code. It's signed digitally when it goes from one owner to another. There are sustainability concerns around the cryptocurrency, which stem from the process of "mining" that is central to its existence.
The "miners" use computers to make complex calculations that verify transactions in Bitcoin. This uses a tremendous amount of energy via computers and server farms all over the world, which has given rise to concerns about the amount of fossil fuel-dependent electricity used to power the computers.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Result
UAE (S. Tagliabue 90 1') 1-2 Uzbekistan (Shokhruz Norkhonov 48', 86')
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
if you go
The flights
Flydubai offers three daily direct flights to Sarajevo and, from June, a daily flight from Thessaloniki from Dubai. A return flight costs from Dhs1,905 including taxes.
The trip
The Travel Scientists are the organisers of the Balkan Ride and several other rallies around the world. The 2018 running of this particular adventure will take place from August 3-11, once again starting in Sarajevo and ending a week later in Thessaloniki. If you’re driving your own vehicle, then entry start from €880 (Dhs 3,900) per person including all accommodation along the route. Contact the Travel Scientists if you wish to hire one of their vehicles.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
