From John Legend and Beyoncé to Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, India's biggest wedding of the year saw performances by some of the world's most prominent musicians and actors, and a guestlist that included celebrities, politicians, industrialists, authors and sport legends. Here's what we know about the couple and their wedding celebrations so far.
Who are Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal?
Isha Ambani is the daughter of Nita Ambani, owner of the Mumbai Indians T20 cricket team, and business magnate Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, one of India's biggest conglomerates with interests in petrochemicals, energy and telecommunications. Her older brother, Akash Ambani, who had his own star-studded engagement earlier this year, is married to Shloka Mehta (pictured below, right), whose father is a well-known diamond merchant. Isha, 27, is a Yale University graduate and is on the board of directors at Reliance Retail and Jio.
Anand Piramal is the son of Dr Swati Piramal, a scientist involved in innovation in public healthcare, and industrialist Ajay Piramal, chairman of the Piramal Group, which spans the pharmaceutical, healthcare and real estate sectors. Anand, 33, is the founder of Piramal Realty and executive director of the Piramal Group, and has studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School.
The engagement at Lake Como
Isha and Anand are childhood friends – their families have known one another for decades – and got engaged in May, when Anand proposed on a trip the couple took to the hill station of Mahableshwar. The official engagement ceremony took place in September in Italy, in a three-day celebration that included a performance by John Legend, who is also part of the couple's wedding festivities this month. On the guest list were the then-unmarried Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, as well as Aamir Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Karan Johar, AR Rahman, Manish Malhotra, Juhi Chawla and Janhvi Kapoor.
The sangeet ceremony in Udaipur
The couple held their sangeet ceremony at The Oberoi Udaivilas, a heritage hotel and wildlife sanctuary in Udaipur, Rajasthan, constructed on what used to be the hunting grounds of the ruler of Mewar. The two-night party was held on December 8 and 9, with celebrity guests aplenty. On the list were: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, who got married in the neighbouring state of Jodhpur about a week ago; Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, also fresh from their various wedding celebrations in Lake Como, Bangalore and Mumbai; plus Ranbir Kapoor, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Vidya Balan, Varun Dhawan, Sachin Tendulkar, Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor and Karisma Kapoor.
Hilary Clinton, Arianna Huffington, Lakshmi Mittal and James Murdoch were also there.
Saturday night saw a slew of performances by Bollywood stars, including Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Karan Johar, while Beyoncé took to the stage on Sunday. See all the celebrity performances here. Isha and Anand did a little number together, too.
What we know about the wedding
Not too much, apart from the fact that it will take place on December 12 at the lavish Ambani residence in Mumbai. Antilia tower in South Mumbai is one of the most expensive residential properties in the world. It has a living space of 400,000 square feet, which includes a salon, spa, ballroom, three pools, private theatre, terrace garden, nine lifts, three helipads and a six-floor garage with space for 188 cars. Although the building has 27 storeys, it stands 570 feet high, which is closer to the size of a 40-storey structure. It's little wonder, then, that the work on the fairy lights and flowers that typically adorn an Indian bride's home began weeks ago.
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Read more:
An insight into Mukesh Ambani's empire and how he became Asia's richest man
A look at Priyanka Chopra's lavish wedding cake
Shah Rukh Khan's latest movie 'Zero' was partially shot in Dubai
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Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
UAE squad
Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
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Copa del Rey
Barcelona v Real Madrid
Semi-final, first leg
Wednesday (midnight UAE)
Tour de France
When: July 7-29
UAE Team Emirates:
Dan Martin, Alexander Kristoff, Darwin Atapuma, Marco Marcato, Kristijan Durasek, Oliviero Troia, Roberto Ferrari and Rory Sutherland
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Kashima Antlers 3 (Nagaki 49’, Serginho 69’, Abe 84’)
Guadalajara 2 (Zaldivar 03’, Pulido 90')
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.”
'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra
Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa
Rating: 4/5
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