DUBAI // After months of speculation about their relationship, Shashi Tharoor, India's former junior foreign minister, and Sunanda Pushkar of Dubai tied the knot at a modest, traditional ceremony in Kerala yesterday.
Wedding celebrations will continue until the end of the month with ceremonies, receptions and dinner parties planned in India and the UAE. A three-day Dubai stay is packed with scheduled functions and parties, after which the couple will fly to Spain for their honeymoon. Mr Tharoor's short career as junior foreign minister was marred by allegations that Ms Pushkar received a free stake in an Indian Premier League cricket franchise. The controversy eventually led to his resignation.
The wedding is seen as a respite for both, who have been hounded by the media regarding their intentions. Mr Tharoor and Ms Pushkar are both twice divorced. Mr Tharoor ended his most recent marriage this year after meeting Ms Pushkar. Mr Tharoor, 54, completed the wedding ritual yesterday by tying the thali, a sacred gold chain, around Ms Pushkar's neck. The traditional Malayali ceremony was performed at the groom's 200-year-old ancestral home in Palakkad in front of a group of close friends and family members.
He was dressed in the traditional white mundu, kurta and a shawl while the bride wore a white sari. Mr Tharoor's 94-year-old mother, his sisters and other relatives were present at the wedding, while the bride's father and other relatives from her home town near Sopore in Kashmir were also in attendance. Television crews and photographers gathered outside the wedding area to capture images of the couple exchanging garlands. The two appeared calm and happy as they mingled with guests after the ceremony.
A busy schedule awaits the couple in the coming days: as many as five further events are planned. To start things off, a grand reception was held at the minister's electoral constituency in Thiruvananthapuram last night in the presence of senior ministers, socialites and others. The newlyweds will now travel to New Delhi, where another party is scheduled. Dubai is the final party stop, where they are expected to stay for three days.
Ms Pushkar will hold a traditional Kashmiri wedding ceremony at an undisclosed location in Dubai. Many of her friends and relatives are expected to be present for this function, which will be followed by another reception and a few more dinner parties. "It's going to be a grand affair in Dubai, as Sunanda has many friends here," said a source close to the couple. "They have not disclosed the location of the wedding yet, but we are looking forward to seeing them together."
Ms Pushkar, who has been a Dubai resident for more than a decade, was employed in sales for Dubai's Tecom development. The couple met through mutual friends in Dubai and spent a great deal of time together in the emirate. People invited to the wedding in Dubai said they were given only the date of the wedding, but the venue was yet to be announced. "I was invited to the wedding in Palakkad but could not attend," said R Naushad, the former president of the Thiruvananthapuram Expatriates Association in the UAE. "Our representatives will attend the function in Thiruvananthapuram tonight."
Mr Naushad said details of their stay in Dubai were not clear, but they hope to see the couple. "Once we communicate with Mr Tharoor, we would love to organise an event for them," he said. Ms Pushkar's clothes for the wedding reception were designed by the Dubai-based Indian designer Anjali Chandiramani of A&H Creations and Vastra Creations. "We have been associated for over eight months now and she approached me to design her wedding clothes," Ms Chandiramani said. "We have been exclusively manufacturing and customising clothes for our clients for the last eight years. Sunanda is our client and we are happy to design for her wedding."
She created the wedding outfit as well as a trousseau for the bride. "We designed one of her main outfits for the wedding, a sari." "The trousseau will also be done at my store and we have kept in mind the functions she will attend," Ms Chandiramani said. She said the sari design was suited towards a traditional wedding ceremony while the other outfits have been prepared for dinners and parties. "We have designed something modern and contemporary, keeping in mind that she will be attending many functions here," she said.
Mr Tharoor, who has written several books, missed out on the position of UN secretary general, beaten to it by Ban Ki-moon. However, he successfully contested the elections in 2009 from Kerala, shocking many of his critics. But the minister's popularity took a knock after Ms Pushkar's free stake in the Kochi cricket team was revealed by the IPL chairman, Lalit Modi. The chairman questioned the ethics of Mr Tharoor's involvement in the sale of the franchise to a group of businessmen based in the UAE.
Mr Modi's allegations sparked further investigations into the IPL teams, which ultimately resulted in the suspension of Mr Modi himself, who was found to have a stake in some of the teams.
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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.”
Company%20profile
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Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
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Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
The biog
Name: Greg Heinricks
From: Alberta, western Canada
Record fish: 56kg sailfish
Member of: International Game Fish Association
Company: Arabian Divers and Sportfishing Charters
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Four stars
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203S%20Money%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20London%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Zhiznevsky%2C%20Eugene%20Dugaev%20and%20Andrei%20Dikouchine%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%245.6%20million%20raised%20in%20total%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
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.
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.
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
