Afshan Ahmed
DUBAI // After a succession of sleepless nights, Nandish Hoovappa finally breathed a sigh of relief when a new Indian school in the emirate offered places for his children.
The JSS Private School that accepted both Mr Hoovappa's sons opened yesterday. A branch of the Indian High School (IHS) in Dubai Silicon Oasis is expected to open next week.
Both schools will help reduce the ongoing shortage of places at Indian curriculum schools by offering at least 4,800 places. Each will follow the Central Board of Secondary Education International (CBSE-i) curriculum.
Mr Hoovappa was at JSS yesterday to finish the necessary paperwork to secure a place for his son in Grade 1. His other son will enrol in September.
"Finding an Indian school is a tedious job. In most schools you lose out in the lottery," said Mr Hoovappa, referring to the system that applies at oversubscribed Indian schools.
JSS has 350 students enrolled, but there is room for twice that number, said Chitra Sharma, principal of the school in Al Safa.
"Despite being a new school, we have seen a lot of interest and continue to get admission requests," Ms Sharma said yesterday on the school's first day. As parents filled out forms, students were being eased into a classwork routine by their teachers.
Arundathi Srinivas, the supervisor of the kindergarten, said they were using smart boards - interactive white boards - for play activities.
"We will have introductory sessions, games and reading classes for the next few days," she said.
The two new campuses will cut class numbers. Parents have complained about overcrowding at Indian schools. Not including the new campuses, there are 20 Indian schools in the emirate.
Large class sizes pose problems at more than half of the Indian and Pakistani schools in the emirate, according to the 2010-2011 Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau report.
Ms Sharma said the class size at JSS did not exceed 25 students. "Parents are also interested because in other schools, the teacher-student ratio is very high and they are aware of it not being a healthy environment to learn."
Overcrowding was one of the reasons Preeti Manok moved her two girls from another Indian school to JSS. "I was not very happy there because the school had a lot of students in the class," she said. "My children were not getting the individual attention and the teachers could not really focus and work on the weaknesses of the students."
On the first day at JSS, the students lined up for the morning assembly in the compound, and were addressed by the principal.
When the pupils were asked if they had any questions, one boy in the primary section raised his hand and said: "I do not have a question but I want to say that this school is good."
Ms Sharma said the plan to have enrichment activities such as swimming and a mathematics lab had excited the students.
The library and activities room are still under renovation, but the principal expects them to be up and running by the end of the month.
At the Indian High School branch, preparations were underway to welcome the primary batch next week.
Ashok Kumar, the school's chief executive, said the number of seats offered in the kindergarten section were taken up within two hours of the announcement. Admissions are now closed, he said.
"We will be opening only KG to Grade 1 this month," he said. "Expansion to Grade 2 and Grade 3 are scheduled for September."
At the other Indian High School campus, which is 50 years old, 3,000 applications were received for only 500 KG places.
However, the IHS-Silicon Oasis can accommodate 3,000 students at full capacity.
Mohan Valrani, chairman of the IHS-Silicon school group, said: "There is a big shortage in primary grades and we will be opening up admissions for all the other classes in September as well.
"Once this school is full, we will start working on our next school. There will always be a campus in the pipeline."
Suma Deepu, whose daughter will be joining the KG batch at the IHS-Silicon Oasis, said this was the best option.
She said the fees of Dh800 per month at the new school were slightly higher but still more affordable than many others.
She would have paid only Dh315 per month if her child had been accepted at the first school she had applied to, said Mrs Deepu.
"It's a different curriculum as well, but I trust the management of the school," she said.
[ aahmed@thenational.ae ]
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 Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
MATCH DETAILS
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WHAT IS THE LICENSING PROCESS FOR VARA?
Vara will cater to three categories of companies in Dubai (except the DIFC):
Category A: Minimum viable product (MVP) applicants that are currently in the process of securing an MVP licence: This is a three-stage process starting with [1] a provisional permit, graduating to [2] preparatory licence and concluding with [3] operational licence. Applicants that are already in the MVP process will be advised by Vara to either continue within the MVP framework or be transitioned to the full market product licensing process.
Category B: Existing legacy virtual asset service providers prior to February 7, 2023, which are required to come under Vara supervision. All operating service proviers in Dubai (excluding the DIFC) fall under Vara’s supervision.
Category C: New applicants seeking a Vara licence or existing applicants adding new activities. All applicants that do not fall under Category A or B can begin the application process through their current or prospective commercial licensor — the DET or Free Zone Authority — or directly through Vara in the instance that they have yet to determine the commercial operating zone in Dubai.
Company Profile
Name: HyveGeo
Started: 2023
Founders: Abdulaziz bin Redha, Dr Samsurin Welch, Eva Morales and Dr Harjit Singh
Based: Cambridge and Dubai
Number of employees: 8
Industry: Sustainability & Environment
Funding: $200,000 plus undisclosed grant
Investors: Venture capital and government
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
Faber & Faber
