With a new temple, the UAE’s Hindu community is flourishing

Around the world, Hindus are celebrating a festive season that encompasses some of the most ancient religious events in the history of religion. Navratri has just passed, a time to give thanks to Hindu goddesses. Today, Dussehra begins, a celebration of the triumph of good over evil, based on the story of the defeat of the demonic 10-headed king Ravana.

Hindus in the UAE will also be celebrating a more contemporary story. Today, a new temple in Dubai's Jebel Ali opens its doors for the first time. Now, the UAE's Hindus have an extra place of worship, in a country that already has a number of them, and which is set to get more.

In 2024, a particularly significant and traditional temple will open in Abu Dhabi. The National has followed its construction closely, an elaborate, time-consuming process that will use millions of handmade clay bricks, 30,000 pieces of stone, hand-carved archways, sculptures and seven spires to represent each of the UAE's emirates.

Today's opening in Dubai might be on a slightly more modest scale, but it is still a significant addition to the country's Hindu community. It blends Indian and Arabic architecture and has prayer halls, a banquet hall, a meditation studio, teaching areas and an industrial kitchen.

All this makes the temple a cultural landmark, too, and a place for Hindus and non-Hindus alike to explore the ancient faith and the culture that surrounds it.

It also reminds all of the old ties that Hindus and wider India have to the GCC region, ones that stretch back long before the UAE was established in 1971. Bahrain is home to the Shrinathji Temple that was established in 1817 and Hindu traders have been part of the regional economy for centuries.

Today, these economic ties endure. Last May, the UAE and India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. It is expected to boost non-oil trade between the two countries to $100 billion in five years.

Finally, a new temple adds to the UAE's efforts to boost religious tolerance in the region. The same can be said for Bahrain, a neighbour. Last week, it was announced that Pope Francis will visit the country, which echoes his trip to the UAE in 2019, the first papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula in history. And this week, it was announced that Bahrain would be holding a major interfaith dialogue in November under the theme "The East and The West for Human Co-existence". Pope Francis and Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar and chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, will be among prominent leaders in attendance.

Today's new temple is not just for Hindus in the region to welcome. In a world where division appears to be growing in so many quarters, it is important that countries are seen to be not just tolerating different faiths, but actively encouraging their integration.

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Italy
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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.”

Five films to watch

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Only Yesterday (1991)

Pom Poki (1994)

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

How Beautiful this world is!

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Paltan

Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5

Sole survivors

Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

The President's Cake

Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem

Rating: 4/5

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