Dozens of Indian emergency workers are scouring two Himalayan mountain ranges in efforts to find eight trekkers who are missing after severe weather killed seven hikers in Uttarakhand state.
Extreme rain and snowfall last week triggered flash floods and landslides across several parts of the northern state, killing at least 68 people and damaging scores of homes and roads.
We have recovered seven bodies from Lamkhaga Pass. Two are still missing and two badly injured trekkers are being treated at a hospital
Shweta Choubey,
Uttarakhand police
Officials said two groups of trekkers comprising 21 people were trapped in upper reaches of the Himalayas after heavy rains and snowfall hit the region late last Sunday.
The army sent a helicopter on Thursday and several teams of rescuers embarked on foot to trace the missing trekkers.
But seven of a group of 11 trekkers were found dead, having fallen into a gorge following heavy snowfall near the 5,200-metre Lamkhaga Pass.
Two trekkers were rescued while another two remain missing.
Officials said the aerial rescue operation was called off late on Friday after the area received fresh snowfall, but two teams of rescue workers were scouring the area on Saturday.
In Sunderdhunga glacier, east of Lamkhaga Pass, six trekkers are missing after they were caught in heavy snowfall.
Four others were rescued by emergency workers on Friday from the 3,000m glacier.
“We have recovered seven bodies from Lamkhaga Pass. Two [trekkers] are still missing and two badly injured trekkers are being treated at a hospital,” Shweta Choubey, a police officer from Uttarakhand, told The National.
Six trekkers are missing from the Sunderdhunga region, while four others were rescued by emergency workers, the officer said.
Authorities said they rescued more than 60 trekkers, including six foreigners, from Kafani and Dwali glaciers, in the east of the state.
Uttarakhand is one of the top mountaineering destinations in India, with thousands of people visiting the state’s Himalayan peaks in October, the start of the post-monsoon season.
But extreme weather and landslides are becoming common in the Himalayan state in recent years, something experts attribute to climate change.
More than 200 people were killed in February after a glacier avalanche caused flash floods that struck the state's Chamoli district, damaging two hydroelectric projects and roads.
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Stars: Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
- Research equivalent Airbnb homes in your location to ensure competitiveness.
- Post on all relevant platforms to reach the widest audience; whether you let personally or via an agency know your potential guest profile – aiming for the wrong demographic may leave your property empty.
- Factor in costs when working out if holiday letting is beneficial. The annual DCTM fee runs from Dh370 for a one-bedroom flat to Dh1,200. Tourism tax is Dh10-15 per bedroom, per night.
- Check your management company has a physical office, a valid DTCM licence and is licencing your property and paying tourism taxes. For transparency, regularly view your booking calendar.
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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.”
