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Stage set for polling in ‘sensitive, crucial’ western UP
Lucknow: The stage is set for the crucial first phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, voting for which will begin on Saturday morning. Polling will be held in 73 assembly constituencies spread across 15 districts in the western part of the state, beginning 7 a.m. In the first of the seven-phased staggered elections in the state, a total of 839 candidates are in fray. The Maximum number of candidates is in Agra South where 26 are trying their luck to be part of the 17th state assembly. The least number of candidates – six each – are from Hastinapur, Iglas and Loni seats.
Amid heightened fears of poll violence, already proved true by a spate of incidents in the past few days, an unprecedented security deployment has been made in sensitive areas — Shamli, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar, Mathura, Bulandshahr and Agra. In all 826 companies of central forces have been stationed for the first phase of polling. The campaigning for this phase had many firsts. This was for the first time in the electoral history of the region that former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, now a mere ‘mentor’ for the Samajwadi Party (SP), did not campaign.
So also Congress President Sonia Gandhi who did not turn up due to ill-health. The duo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav-Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi campaigned jointly. While Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, despite named ‘star campaigner’ did not join in the canvassing, Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav and veteran actress Jaya Bachchan did campaign for party candidates. In the 2012 assembly polls, of the 73 seats — SP had won 24 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party 23, Bharatiya Janata Party 12, Rashtriya Lok Dal 9 and Congress 5 seats .
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all the 12 seats here and many veterans like Ajit Singh were drowned in the saffron surge. There are 2.59 crore voters who would exercise their franchise on February 11, of which 1.42 crore are men, 1.17 crore women and 1,511 from the third gender. Prominent seats which have attracted attention include Noida from where Pankaj Singh, son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is contesting; Mathura where senior Congress leader Pradip Mathur is locked in a direct battle with Shrikant Sharma, the national spokesman of the BJP and Sardhana where BJP’s Sangeet Som is challenged by SP’s Atul Pradhan. In Meerut city, former state BJP President and sitting MLA Laxmikant Bajpayi is being challenged in a triangular contest by SP-Congress combine’s Rafiq Ansari and BSP’s Pankaj Jolly. Kairana, Thana Bhawan and Sikandarabad are other high-profile seats.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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