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Who was Sitara Devi, the doyen of Kathak dance ?

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New Delhi : Sitara Devi, the doyen of Kathak dance, would have celebrated her 97th birth anniversary on November 8 this year. Google, known for the fascinating illustrations it comes up with to honour significant people and historic events, decided to dedicate a doodle to the prolific dancer who died at the age of 94 on November 25, 2014. Also known as the ‘Empress of Dance’ or ‘Nritya Samrajni’ after Rabindranath Tagore named her thus, Devi was one of the pioneers who brought the classical Indian dance into the context of Bollywood.

Born in 1920 in Kolkata as Dhanno, Devi was the daughter of Matsya Kumari, who was from the royal family of Nepal and Sukhadev Maharaj, a Vaishnavite Sanskrit scholar whose vocation was to teach and participate in kathak dance performances in different parts of the country.

Maharaj’s in-depth understanding of the Bharatanatyashastra made him pass on his passion for performance art to his three daughters and two sons as well, in spite of how the dance was considered lowly and undignified in general public opinion back then.

Dhanno was enthusiastic in learning the dance observing her sister who was twenty years older to her. She also challenged the regressive practice of child marriage when she was about to be married off at the tender age of eight. She, however, insisted that she wanted to study further.

When her father came to know that Dhanno’s role in a dance drama depicting the lives of Savitri and Satyavan had left the audience enthralled, her father realised her potential and re-christened her as Savitri Devi. She began performing at an early age of ten and because of her commitment towards learning and finessing her art, she had to discontinue schooling. Devi’s dance performance in Bombay’s Atiya Begum Palace bowled Tagore over, who then gave her the opportunity to perform at the Tata Palace of the Tata Group and felicitated her there.

Devi also performed dance sequences in many films like Nagina, Roti, Vatan, Anjali, Mother India etc., after debuting in Usha Haran in 1940. She was conferred with prestigious honours like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shree in 1973, Kalidas Samman in 1995 and the India Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 for her imminent contribution ranging over six decades to classical dance.

The danseuse was first married to Mughal-e-Azam director K Asif and later to Pratap Barot.

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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

CasinoDays India

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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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