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Government never expected spiked currency not to come back: Official
New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Rejecting criticism after the RBI indicated that almost 99 per cent of demonetised currency returned to the banking system, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Thursday said the government never said it didn’t expect it to come back and ruled out any more window period for exchange of old notes.
“There was clear expectation that much of it (demonetised notes) will come back. Whether all of it will come — people had different estimates and guesses. But the Centre never said it expected any currency not to come back,” Garg told the media here.
Asked if people could get another deadline for depositing scrapped currency of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 that they might be left saddled with, he said: “At this point, no way.”
Most families had high-value currency and they used it for making payments as a way of exchange, Garg said.
On the November 8 demonetisation, the RBI on Wednesday said that of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore of notes taken out of circulation, Rs 15.28 lakh crore, or almost 99 per cent, returned to the system by way of public deposits.
Thus, only Rs 16,000 crore worth of old currency did not return to the banks.
Talking about the Reserve Bank of India dividends for 2016-17 reducing to less than half of what it paid in the previous year due to demonetisation costs, Garg said the government was in discussion with the RBI for more.
“In the Budget, we had estimated (it to be) Rs 58,000 crore. The RBI has calculated a surplus of Rs 44,000 crore. The RBI has transferred Rs 30,000 crore to the government. We are discussing with the RBI whether there is scope for more transfers as we have our Budget estimate at Rs 58,000 crore,” he said.
The RBI this month approved the transfer of surplus to the government, totalling Rs 30,659 crore for the year ended on June 30, 2017. The central bank had in the previous year paid Rs 65,876 crore dividend to the government.
–IANS
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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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