Millions of Hindus in India joined the 10-day festivities to commemorate the birth of Lord Ganesh — the elephant-head deity ― with pomp and fervour after a two-year pandemic-enforced lull.
The festival is celebrated annually to honour Lord Ganesh, revered as the god of wisdom.
Huge marquees are set up across the country where an idol of the deity is installed on a high platform, ostentatiously decorated with flowers.
Hundreds of thousands of devotees visit these marquees to offer prayers and bring sweets and fruit as offerings to the deity.
Many devotees also place an idol at their homes for a minimum of one and a half days for intimate celebrations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday posted a picture of himself while offering prayers.
"Best wishes on Ganesh Chaturthi. May the blessings of Bhagwan Shri Ganesh always remain upon us," Mr Modi tweeted.
In western Maharashtra state, Ganesh Chaturthi is a major festival and is celebrated in the grandest manner, with elaborate street processions.
With Covid case numbers ebbing, the state government withdrew all Covid-19 restrictions to allow huge gatherings of devotees to celebrate the festival after two years of lukewarm festivities.
The height limits for the idols for the procession, reduced to 1.2 metres during the pandemic, were also withdrawn.
In the state capital, Mumbai, at Siddhivinayak Temple, one of the most famous Ganesh temples in the country, hundreds of devotees gathered to witness the prayers and seek blessings early on Wednesday morning.
At another popular pavilion, a 4.2m idol of Lalbaughcha Raja, loosely translated to Red Garden’s King, the most famous Ganesh idol in the city, was unveiled.
The pavilion receives more than two million devotees every day during the festival, according to Balasaheb Kamble, the president of the Lalbaugcha Raja committee that has been organising the festival since 1934.
Large groups of devotees from faraway places camped outside on a narrow footpath, a kilometre from the pavilion, in hope of catching the first glimpse of the idol on Wednesday.
“We came from Ratnagiri and we have been camping outside the pavilion for the last four days. We come here every year,” Nilesh Bagwadh told a local newspaper.
The organisers said that close-circuit cameras were installed at the site for security reasons and more than 4,000 volunteers were deployed to manage the large gathering.
At Chennai in southern Tamil Nadu, devotees flocked to a famous temple, known as Lakhsmi Visa Ganpathi temple, with the hopes of travelling abroad.
The temple is famous among visa-seekers who believe praying to the God will fulfil their dream of obtaining a visa.
In northern Uttar Pradesh, where the festivities have picked up with the migration of the community from Maharashtra, several small-scale pavilions have been erected in residential neighbourhoods.
“It feels wonderful to be able to celebrate the festival like this after two years … the real essence of celebrating any festival is in the community gathering, with your family and friends,” Rekha Gupta, a resident of Noida, a city outside the capital New Delhi, told The National.
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Sun jukebox
Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)
This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.
Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)
The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)
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Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)
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Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)
An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)
Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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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.
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“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.”
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
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The Hindu festival is at once a celebration of the autumn harvest and the triumph of good over evil, as outlined in the Ramayana.
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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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