India will celebrate its 77th Independence Day on Tuesday with much pomp and fare.
The South Asian nation of 1.4 billion people – home to around 25 per cent of the world’s population – won independence from the British colonisers on August 15, 1947, after almost two centuries.
Celebrations will include parades, poetry recitals and ceremonies to hoist the Tricolour, the Indian national flag.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also deliver a speech from the ramparts of the centuries-old Mughal-era Red Fort in the capital Delhi.
This year's celebrations are the first to be held since authorities lifted Covid-19 restrictions.
Why is August 15 India's Independence Day?
Britain ruled India for nearly two centuries but its military and economy were exhausted by the Second World War as anti-colonial movements began to challenge empires.
Within the Indian subcontinent, the UK faced two powerful, seemingly irreconcilable nationalist movements: one calling for the creation of Pakistan, a homeland for the Muslims of South Asia; the other for India, a pluralist nation.
The UK chose to partition the region and withdraw. Under the terms of the Indian Independence Act, the subcontinent was formally divided into two dominions at midnight on August 14, 1947.
The partition of colonial British India into two states, mainly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, triggered one of the biggest mass migrations.
About 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs swapped countries in the political upheaval marred by violence and bloodshed that cost more than one million lives.
At midnight on August 15, 1947, the red sandstone parliamentary building in the heart of India’s capital echoed with the high-pitched voice of Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” Mr Nehru said, words that were heard live over radio by millions of Indians.
Then he promised: “To the nations and peoples of the world, we send greetings and pledge ourselves to co-operate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.”
It marked India’s transition from a British colony to a democracy – the first in South Asia – that has since transformed from a poverty-stricken nation into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, earning itself a seat at the global high table and becoming a democratic counterweight to its authoritarian neighbour, China.
Is it really the 77th anniversary?
Although India attained independence from the UK in 1947, it only became a fully sovereign republic with its own head of state on January 26, 1950.
Between those dates, the 299 men and women of India’s Constituent Assembly worked to imagine their emerging country and to inscribe their vision and foundational legal principles in a national constitution.
The outcome of their efforts is a remarkable document that remains a source of both inspiration and contention today.
Some confusion also remains about which anniversary India is celebrating.
If August 15, 1947, is considered the day India first celebrated its independence from the UK and viewed this as its first Independence Day, then this year is the 77th Independence Day.
But if viewing the first anniversary of Indian independence on August 15, 1948, as the country's first Independence Day, then India is celebrating its 76th Independence Day.
What does India's national anthem Jana Gana Mana mean?
Rendered in the prescribed metre, it takes exactly 52 seconds to sing the Indian anthem, Jana Gana Mana.
The lyrics derive from the first stanza of the famous poet, playwright and social reformer Rabindranath Tagore's five-stanza poem Bharot Bhagyo Bidhata, or “Dispenser of India's destiny” in the Bengali language.
Tagore set the poem to music himself.
The anthem opens with an exaltation of the Almighty, who guides the country’s destiny:
Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
Or, in English:
You, the ruler of our minds, our nation
To you our humble salutations!
The poem then begins a virtual tour of pre-independence India, beginning in the north and circling west, mentioning the regions of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, the southern states speaking Dravidian languages, and Odisha and Bengal:
Punjaba-Sindh-Gujarat-Maratha
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
Tagore refers to features of physical geography as well: the Vindhya and Himalaya mountain ranges and the Yamuna and Ganges rivers.
The Almighty’s name, the anthem says, swells and animates this land. In the final part, Tagore provides a refrain:
Taba Subha name jage, taba subha ashisha maange,
gahe taba jaya-gatha.
Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
Jaya he, Jaya he, Jaya he, jaya jaya jaya jaya he.
Or, in English:
Your blessings we seek, your praises replicate you
As the Protector of India's fate!
Victory! Victory! Victory!
Victory forever to you!
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The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.6-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 285bhp
Torque: 353Nm
Price: TBA
On sale: Q2, 2020
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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Expert input
If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?
“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett
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“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra
Brief scores:
Manchester City 3
Aguero 1', 44', 61'
Arsenal 1
Koscielny 11'
Man of the match: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
RESULT
Chelsea 2
Willian 13'
Ross Barkley 64'
Liverpool 0
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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.”
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
