Alia Bhatt and Lea Salonga among latest Time100 Impact Awards recipients


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Bollywood star Alia Bhatt and Filipina Broadway singer Lea Salonga are among the second batch of stars to be hounoured as part of Time magazine's inaugural Time100 Impact Awards. The first round of accolades were handed out in Dubai in March.

This latest ceremony was held in Singapore on Sunday. Recipients included Iranian-American microbiologist and infectious diseases expert Dr Pardis Sabeti and Gregory L Robinson, the American former director of the James Webb Space Telescope Programme.

At the first event in Dubai, Time said the Impact Awards "recognise leaders who have done extraordinary work to shape their fields and the world at large".

“These scientists, entertainers, storytellers and changemakers are moving all of us forward, one extraordinary action at a time,” said Time's chief people officer Sue Suh at the National Gallery Singapore, marking the first time the awards were being presented in the Asia-Pacific region.

Bhatt, an acclaimed actress who is also known for her advocacy of mental health issues, wore a flowing custom bronze gown by Indian designer duo Gauri and Nainika to the event, and posed for pictures as she proudly cradled her baby bump.

Bhatt, 29, who married actor Ranbir Kapoor, 40, in a glamorous ceremony in Mumbai in April, announced in June that she is expecting their first child.

Scroll through the gallery above for more pictures from the Time 100 Impact Awards in Singapore

Alia Bhatt, left, receives the Time100 Impact Award in Singapore. Getty Images
Alia Bhatt, left, receives the Time100 Impact Award in Singapore. Getty Images

The Time honour caps what has been an eventful year for the actress. Her film RRR, a Telugu-language period epic, is now one of the highest-grossing Indian films in history, while her Bollywood film Brahmastra: Part One — Shiva — which also stars husband Kapoor — is the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022 so far. She's also received rave reviews for her Netflix film Darlings, in which she plays a domestic abuse survivor who decides to turn the tables on her husband.

In July, Bhatt wrapped up her first Hollywood film, Heart of Stone, an espionage thriller also starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan.

"Ten years ago when I started working, all I thought about was how I would one day take over the world. How everyone, everywhere would know who I am and how hardworking and talented and intelligent and bright and flawless I am. I wanted to be perfect and I wanted the world to know it," Bhatt said while receiving the award.

"Ten years later, I’m receiving one of the most prestigious awards on this global platform. And I have no idea how I got here or what I’ve done to deserve this. But, what I do know is: if it falls to me in any way to lead by example, be a role model or make any kind of impact, I want to do it in as human and as flawed a way as possible. Because, after all these years, the thing I’ve realised is [that] it’s the flaws that make you. Perfection is boring.

"Through my movies and my characters, I’ve tried to celebrate flawed people. Because at the end of the day, it’s the imperfections that make a character compelling. So what I’m trying to say is that being yourself is truly the greatest impact that you could make. In the movies and in life, you do not have to be perfect; you just have to bring everything you have — the lows, the highs and the real things we are actually afraid of speaking about. There’s no greater impact than being yourself."

Salonga, 51, best known for her singing in Disney films Aladdin and Mulan as well as her work in hit Broadway shows, was honoured for being a role model for people of colour.

Lea Salonga with her trophy at the Time100 Impact Awards. Getty
Lea Salonga with her trophy at the Time100 Impact Awards. Getty

In her four-decade award-winning career as an actress and singer, Salonga has emerged not only as a Disney and Broadway icon, but a role model for children of colour," Time said. "Salonga prides herself on promoting representation in Hollywood and on Broadway, and showing underrepresented groups that their stories matter."

"As a precocious 7-year-old in the Philippines enamoured with theatre footlights and music, I never imagined I’d be called out — in a good way — for being impactful," Salonga said in her acceptance speech. "I mean, I just wanted to make people smile, I just wanted to entertain. And doing that became so much more important to me over the last two and a half years."

The singer said she wanted to share her award "with my fellow entertainers all over the world".

"Through a time of great uncertainty and darkness, [they] continued to do what they were put on this earth to do. To take our minds off our woes and troubles, even for just a few minutes, through song or dance or words. They brought us music virtually from their living rooms, made music and television shows via Zoom, played instruments and sang arias out the windows of their apartment buildings," she said.

"They gave eyes and ears a rest from the constant barrage of sirens and bad news. They showed up. They were, in a word, impactful. And this is for them."

The Time100 Impact Awards is an extension of the magazine's long-running "most influential" annual list.

"Just as Time's annual list recognises achievement in one year, we also know influence endures. The Time100 Impact Awards, recognise leaders who, through sustained effort, have done extraordinary work to shape the future of their industries and the world at large," the magazine said.

Recipients of the awards at the inaugural event in Dubai in March included Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, UAE Minister of State for Advanced Technology Sarah Al Amiri, British-Ghanian architect Sir David Adjaye and Nigerian economist Tony Elumelu.

Scroll through the gallery below for more pictures from the inaugural Time100 Impact Awards

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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.”

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Updated: October 03, 2022, 12:08 PM