MUMBAI // India stepped up security at its airports yesterday and ordered air marshals aboard some flights after intelligence reports warned that the state-run Air India and some private airlines could be targeted by groups affiliated to al Qa'eda or the banned Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Indian flights originating in the country or in neighbouring ones in the subcontinent could be potential targets for hijacking, the intelligence reports said.
"India's Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has issued a high-alert advisory to all carriers and airports across the country," said a spokesperson for the country's civil aviation ministry. "This requires security agencies, airlines and airport authorities to adopt [security] drills specified for hijack alerts."
The warning comes just days after Robert Gates, the US secretary of defense, who visited India this week, warned that Pakistan-based militants with links to al Qa'eda were plotting another Mumbai-style terror assault in India, with the aim of igniting a war between the longtime foes. Mr Gates grimly warned that if another terrorist attack was launched, India may not show the restraint it did after the November 26, 2008 attack.
India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeF) for orchestrating the Mumbai assault in which a dozen militants launched a simultaneous attack on a train station, two hotels and a Jewish centre, leading to a three-day stand-off with security forces and the deaths of at least 173 people.
According to the intelligence reports, Lashkar has purchased as many as 50 paragliders, which could be used by its members to launch suicide missions on Indian installations. The Indian government said it has set up elaborate air defence measures, including deployment of anti-aircraft guns, to thwart any intrusion into Indian air space.
Pakistan's prime minister, Yusaf Raza Gilani, told Mr Gates the country was striving to eliminate extremists, but could not guarantee there would not be another Mumbai-style attack in India.
"Pakistan is itself facing Mumbai-like attacks almost every other day and when we cannot protect our own citizens, how can we guarantee that there wouldn't be any more terrorist hits in India," Mr Gilani reportedly told Mr Gates, during the US envoy's visit to his country.
Relations between the nuclear-rival nations have soured since November 26, particularly as Pakistan drags its feet in apprehending Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attack.
In December 2008, Pakistani authorities banned his organisation, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity believed to be a front for LeT, and Mr Saeed was placed under house arrest. However, in June last year, a Pakistani court released him for lack of evidence.
Pakistan demands that India should provide more concrete evidence against him.
P Chidambaram, the Indian home minister, maintains that India has furnished copious evidence to prosecute Mr Saeed. It says it has passed on four dossiers of evidence to Pakistan since November 26. For decades, relations between the countries have remained hostage to the gnawing threat of terrorism. India and Pakistan have sat through four rounds of a dialogue, achieving modest gains on trade agreements and limited confidence-building measures. The fifth round was underway when the Mumbai attacks occurred. The process stalled indefinitely after that.
In July last year there was a slight thaw when both countries decided to restart the dialogue.
After a meeting and friendly handshakes in Sharm El Sheikh, in Egypt, they vowed to insulate the dialogue from terrorism, a sticky issue which has often scuttled negotiations in the past. Against a backdrop of three wars, numerous skirmishes along their shared border and decades of cold war, optimistic observers thought this new bonhomie would encourage them to peacefully negotiate all major outstanding disputes, including Kashmir. But the dialogue process has barely inched forward since then, primarily because of the slow progress in the Mumbai prosecutions.
Relations between India and Pakistan touched a new ebb this week after Pakistan reacted with outrage at the humiliating rejection of all 11 of its cricket players in the auctions for the much-vaunted IPL cricket season, due to be held in India later this year.
* The National
How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
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.”
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