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I have no political baggage, that’s an advantage: Sharmistha Mukherjee
New Delhi: From the sublime world of the arts to the hurly burly of politics. Sharmistha Mukherjee, Congress candidate for the Greater Kailash assembly constituency here and President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter, is ready to tackle real-time problems of blocked drains, congested traffic and parking woes as she makes her debut in electoral politics.
Mukherjee, an accomplished Kathak dancer who has led dance troupes around the world, was named a candidate Thursday for the constituency by the Congress party. She is pitted against Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Saurabh Bhardwaj, a former Delhi minister, for the Feb 7 poll.
And contrary to popular perception, she does not stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan but in Greater Kailash-Part II.
“I am staying in GK-II since 1986. I face the same problems like others do, of blocked drains, parking space crunch, congested roads,” Mukherjee told IANS in an interview at the local party office.
Though she is relatively new to the political arena, having joined the Congress formally last June, Mukherjee says she is not new to politics and has grown up with it – her father has been a veteran Congress leader and her brother, Abhijit Mukherjee, is a Congress MP.
Mukherjee, 49, does not feel her lack of political experience could be a hindrance to getting votes. “I am a fresh face. I have no baggage. In today’s context that is an advantage.”
Since she joined the Congress, Mukherjee says she has plunged wholeheartedly into meeting party workers, interacting with people as well as holding “sawaal-jawaab” (question-answer) sessions.
“I am already reaching out to people through sawaal-jawab sessions. Very often I attend three-four such sessions. These are small gatherings of 20-25 people,” she said.
Mukherjee, who swears by the Congress ideology, feels that a candidate has a major role to play in influencing voters’ choice.
“Candidates play a major role. People want to know if the candidate is genuine, his or her capability, and if the candidate has enough clout to get things done, and also accessibility.. Most voters I have found are not party to any strong ideology,” she said, adding that she was aiming to influence such voters.
Being a Bengali, Mukherjee is hoping to attract the 20,000-odd Bengali voters in the constituency, mostly in Chittaranjan Park and also in Chirag Dilli and Kalkaji areas.
Mukherjee, who expresses confidence in pulling off a win, says she feels it won’t be a triangular fight with the AAP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but only between the BJP and Congress. “AAP is not such a big factor here.”
She also dismissed any “Modi wave” in her constituency.
If elected, Mukherjee plans to sit with the Resident Welfare Associations and concerned citizens to form a “team of experts” to deal with problems of parking, traffic bottlenecks, women’s security, poor lighting, cleanliness, especially in slum clusters like Jagdamba Camp in Sheikh Sarai.
She feels the crowded roads could be well served by implementing the one-direction traffic flow, like in Kolkata.
Mukherjee, who has a personal security officer accompanying her always, has taken to social media in a big way to connect with her electorate.
“I have a team of young and enthusiastic volunteers who are looking after my social media page. My twitter account (@Sharmistha_GK) is an active handle,” said Mukherjee, whose Facebook page is SharmisthaGK.
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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