Four students among seven arrested for defaming Indian PM



NEW DELHI // Police in southern India have arrested seven people, including four students, and charged them with defaming the country’s new prime minister in a college magazine.

The arrests came after an annual student magazine at the Government Polytechnic College in Kerala state included a photo of Narendra Modi in a collage of what it called “negative faces”. Others included in the collage were Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and former US president George W Bush.

The seven people were arrested on Wednesday and charged with defamation and criminal conspiracy, said N Vijaya Kumar, the local police chief. They were released on bail Thursday. If found guilty, they could face prison terms and stiff fines.

The four students helped edit the magazine. The others who were arrested included the college’s top official, the magazine’s faculty adviser and the owner of the company that printed the publication.

Police seized a printing press and computers used to design the magazine. The college said no further copies of the publication would be distributed, according to Mr Kumar.

“They were arrested under several charges, including defamation, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, criminal conspiracy and printing matter known to be defamatory,” he said.

Police made the arrests after Yuva Morcha, or Youth Front, a group affiliated with Mr Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, complained about the photo.

The college’s student union publishes the magazine each year based on a theme. This year’s issue, which was distributed last week, explained world history through pictures of faces.

Mr Modi, who was sworn in as prime minister late last month, was chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat when it was torn by sectarian violence in 2002. More than 1,000 Muslims were killed and Mr Modi was widely seen as having done little to stop the carnage, though he denies any wrongdoing.

A student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) runs the college’s student union and has openly accused Mr Modi of being responsible for the sectarian violence.

Indian politicians are known for being sensitive to public criticism or ridicule.

In November 2012, two 21-year-old college students were arrested in Mumbai for posting a comment on Facebook criticising the shutdown of India’s financial hub for the funeral of a powerful right-wing politician.

* Agence France-Presse

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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.”

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Name: Almnssa
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