NEW DELHI: Nishad Azeem can’t suppress his smile. ” Indian enthusiasts beating Kerala drums for the Argentine and Brazilian players in the stands will be a sight to behold,” he said.
As the FIFA World Cup approaches in Qatar, Indians are expected to make up the biggest visiting organization from a country that doesn’t play: demand for personal jets from India has skyrocketed and a one-way ticket from Delhi to Doha could be available. It now charges ₹60,000 or more.
Azeem, however, is a guest who expects to be mesmerized by Lionel Andres Messi’s prowess. It has played a leading role in preparing for the small desert peninsula, ever since Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010.
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A second-generation Indian expatriate, Azeem is the founder of Coastal Qatar, a conglomerate specializing in construction, trading, manufacturing and metal fabrication. He worked in Kuwait in the 1990s and moved to Qatar in 2001. Coastal Qatar in 2005.
For the World Cup, its corporate installed 350,000 seats in six stadiums; provided secondary metal for some; built 2,000 cubicles; Changing rooms for players and soft posts.
Coastal Qatar, today, has 700 employees. ” As the demographic balance in the country is maintained thanks to the number of visas issued, we seek highly professional jobs in India due to the availability (of talent). Other staff come from Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc. Azeem explains.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are about 750,000 Indians in Qatar, a quarter of its population. They are engaged in medicine, engineering, banking, finance, media and perform manual jobs such as driving, cleaning and plumbing, among others. Thousands of them, both highly professional and semi-professional, played a small role in preparing for the World Cup, in construction, infrastructure and manufacturing. Many of them will continue to play a role during the next 28 days, especially those that are executed in the service sector, in transversal corporations to hospitality, tourism, retail, logistics and hospitals.
Mint spoke to several Indian expats like Azeem and professionals living in Qatar. It would be an exaggeration to say that the good fortune of this mega sporting event, which has already generated enough controversy, rests partly on their shoulders.
Around 1. 5 million football enthusiasts are expected to flock to Qatar over the next month. But that’s only a small part of most World Cup spectators. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, 3570 million listened. Qatar will have a point to prove.
Play Creators
In 2010, when Qatar won the bid to host the World Cup, it surprised many. The country did not have a football culture and the 2006 Asian Games were the only major sports tournament to its credit. Their stadiums were not world class; The supporting infrastructure was missing. In addition, a hot and humid climate was thought to be a major disadvantage.
Earlier this month, Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA president, criticized Qatar as an assembly post in an interview with a Swiss newspaper. “It’s too small a country,” he said. Football and the World Cup are also for him. “
To be fair, Qatar has come a long way since 2010. Hamad International Airport has been expanded; there is a new metro; new paths; New synthetic islands. However, this infrastructure will be put to the test as the duration of tournament traffic increases.
“Much of the infrastructure, plus the expansion of the new metro and airport, was planned as part of Qatar’s National Vision 2030 (launched in 2008). The World Cup has given a sense of urgency to those projects,” says Azeem.
Before this World Cup, Qatar only had one stadium by FIFA standards. FIFA stadiums will have to meet a multitude of guidelines, including how they are built, funding, technical parameters such as the length and width of the pitch and the quality of the pitch. in the field.
In the run-up to the tournament, Qatar built seven new stadiums to FIFA standards. This whole structure required hordes of Indians and experience.
A stadium, Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium, built across the
Qatar’s extreme weather highlights the need for cooling generation. Part of this generation came from Galfar Al Misnad, a company run by Satish G. Pillai. ” Our flagship projects, such as Al Bayt Stadium and Doha Metro Red Line, in partnership with companies, have cemented Galfar Al Misnad’s role as an integral partner in the arrangements for the prestigious 2022 FIFA World Cup and as a spouse in the nation-building work,” wrote Pillai, CEO of the company. in an article on their website.
Other company, Eléctricas Populares
Start of the party
Mohamed Althaf is a director of LuLu Group International, one of Qatar’s largest retail chains. He migrated from India to Qatar in the early 2000s and employs 6,000 people, some of whom are Indians.
Althaf, who is also a football fan, believes that each and every guest at the Qatar World Cup is in luck. But for that to happen, your chain wants to plan back-end logistics very well.
“80% of food is imported into Qatar. Despite the geopolitical crisis, we have kept food inflation low. This is because of government subsidies, but also because we have planned our logistics well,” says Althaf.
Qatar has a shared knowledge platform between government authorities, portals, hotels and points of sale. This allowed the company to plan and store, he adds.
LuLu has opened seven new exclusive outlets that store food and essentials in the subway, near FIFA stadiums and fan accommodations, over the past two weeks.
The retail chain also recently opened two hypermarkets (larger stores) in the country, bringing the number to 20. These hypermarkets have departments committed to other nationalities (Koreans, Mexicans, etc. ); other personal food tastes (vegan, gluten-free, nut allergies, etc. ). In addition, LuLu offers two online delivery methods: LuLu’s online store, which delivers in two to 3 hours, and explicit delivery of 1,500 pieces in one hour.
All of this requires more people working 24 hours a day. The company has increased its up to 30% in preparation for the World Cup.
Safari Group, a retail company, has increased its shares in its retail outlets by 20%. It will also open two more outlets in November and December, bringing the total number of outlets to five, said Shaheen Backer, the company’s lead executive. The hours have been extended from four p. m. to 6 p. m. In fact, the store can stay open 24 hours if needed, Backer adds. The company employs 2,000 people, between 40 and 50, approximately 100% of whom are Indians.
Medication is another essential element. With 92 outlets, Wellcare Pharmacy is one of the largest chains in Qatar. This year 13 new pharmacies were opened in an attempt to succeed in all primary communities within a 15-minute drive. The inventory of over-the-counter medicines has more than 40%, with greater availability of covid-19 antigen control kits and condoms, reports company representative.
Wellcare Pharmacy was co-founded through Asharaf K. P. , a pharmacist, in 2000. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Indian Business and Professionals Council in Doha, an organization that tries to encourage India-Qatar trade.
Meanwhile, an Indian-owned hospital chain, Naseem Healthcare, is on the official list of personal services presented to enthusiasts through the country’s Ministry of Public Health. day during the World Cup era to respond to physical emergencies.
Hospitals in the Gulf region are fed by Indian nurses; Qatar is no exception. Of the 12,000 nurses working at Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar’s leading public fitness provider, 55% are Indian, says Mini Sithrough, president of United Nurses of India-Qatar, a nursing association. Some 1,000 Hamad nurses will volunteer at the World Cup, some of whom are Indian.
Corners to have fun
What is a World Cup without pleasure? Some Indian companies want to make certain football enthusiasts have fun outdoors in the stadium.
Nelson Jos, an Indian, is the founder of a destination control company called Travel Designer. It hopes to satisfy the travel desires of more than 500 people every day of the tournament, from hotel reservations to excursions outside Doha.
Fan areas have also sprung up, providing food, music and giant screens. One of those zones, for Mexico, was designed by an Indian company, ME Visual. “We have about 120 employees; 60% are Indian,” says Richin Abraham, ME’s chief operating officer. The fan zone of Mexico is a giant pavilion of 15,000 square meters with 3 giant screens. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people are expected each day, Abraham adds. In addition, his company has been operating with the branding of FIFA stadiums as well as Qatar Airways, creating a World Cup atmosphere in those venues, graphics and lights.
No one will go hungry in those fan zones – QBOX Containers
Infidel?
There is glitz and glamour, food and fun. But there is no escape from the denunciation in which Qatar is trapped: serious accusations of human and labour rights violations; Sordid stories of exploitation, racism, wage theft, passport confiscation and many more.
In a recent study, the UK-founded human rights organization, Equidem, interacted with 982 employees who were mainly engaged in the structure of the 8 stadiums. He pointed out significant rights violations in them. More than 60 percent of the staff were Indian. “Most of the non-unusual disruptions reported by staff were wage theft, discrimination based on nationality, and burnout in a broader culture of workplace concern. We have also noticed many cases of forced labour,” says Namrata Raju, Equidem’s India director.
Mint spoke with some staff members who told their stories. They needed to be known because they feared negative reactions from their employers and the local government.
“I was presented with a maximum salary, more than double what I would get in other countries in the region. However, after the first 3 months, the invoices were never made on time. They still owe me part of my salary,” one structure said. who returned to India after running in Qatar for six years.
Others complained of poor functioning situations and long hours. Cases of deaths and injuries have been reported; The figures are disputed.
When asked about such reports, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), which oversaw arrangements for the World Cup, responded by saying Qatar had “beyond. “
“I don’t think any country can claim to have done as much as Qatar has done in the last 10 years because of the operating conditions, the living criteria and the arrival of the minimum wage,” said Nasser Al Khater, executive director of the 2022 World Cup. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Qatar’s government also accused European critics of being “racist” in their description of the country.
Raju that Qatar has reformed its labour legislation and policies. However, there are gaps in practice, he argues.
Indian business owners, Mint, reiterated SC’s position. “We are saying that things here are perfect, but there have been significant innovations in legislation and enforcement. The negative campaigns in some Western media are representative of the real scenario here,” says Azeem from coastal Qatar.
Now, a super-successful World Cup may quell some of those criticisms. The Qatari government and its corporations expect Messi, Ronaldo, Lewandowski, Neymar and Mbappe to paint their magic on the pitch.
Mint elsewhere
In Opinion, Manu Joseph tells how hypermorality almost ruined Twitter Inc. Jayati Ghosh delivers a message to adults in the Global Macro Policy Room. Rajrishi Singhal says India is very likely to push the G20 barriers.
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