Google is celebrating Indian film star Sridevi on what would have been her 60th birthday.
One of Bollywood's first female superstars Sridevi died in Dubai in 2018 while in the UAE for a wedding.
On August 13, the search engine is marking what would have been her birthday with a colourful animation by Mumbai artist Bhumika Mukherjee.
Over her four-decade career, Sridevi starred in some three hundred films and made her mark on Bollywood as one of the first women to chart a path to success in the traditionally male-dominated industry.
The doodle is displayed across the GCC, India, Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand.
Known by one name, which is Hindi for goddess, Sridevi was famous for her dance moves and impeccable comic timing. She was married to film producer Boney Kapoor, including her in the tight-knit clan often considered Bollywood royalty.
In 2018, she visited the UAE for the wedding of her nephew, Raag Desh actor Mohit Marwah, to stylist Antara Motiwala. Her death was reported shortly afterwards.
Dubai police conducted an investigation and post-mortem before her body was flown back to India. Her last rights were offered in Mumbai with a sea of fans in attendance.
Widely lauded for her comeback in the sweet slice-of-life drama English-Vinglish (2012), Sridevi's star had shone since the 1970s, when she made her debut in the Tamil film industry with Moondru Mudichu, by director K Balachander.
Sridevi first appeared on the big screen in Thunaivan (1969), a devotional film, in which she was credited as baby Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, her given name.
In keeping with the Indian film industry's penchant for marketable names, Shree became Sridevi – the star of numerous Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies, winning her first of five Filmfare awards for Meendum Kokila (1981). Solva Sawan, Sridevi's first Bollywood movie in 1979, was also a remake of a Tamil film in which she starred alongside South India's greats Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth.
She moved to Mumbai in the 1980s for meatier roles in Hindi films.
Initially criticised by leading Bollywood actresses for her full figure and Tamil accent, Sridevi got her big break in Bollywood with box office hit Himmatwala (1983) where she was paired with Jeetendra.
Eventually, she became one of the industry’s most bankable stars and was often pitted against big names such as Rekha and Madhuri Dixit.
The actress was honoured with India's Padma Shri award in 2013, and her last film was Mom (2017), for which she was praised as “the high priestess of Indian cinema” by The Times of India.
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How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
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Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
RESULT
West Brom 2 Liverpool 2
West Brom: Livermore (79'), Rondón (88' )
Liverpool: Ings (4'), Salah (72')
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.”
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
