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Stalin slams government for water supply contract to French firm
Chennai, June 25 (IANS) DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Monday slammed the Tamil Nadu government for awarding a 400 million euros project to supply drinking water in Coimbatore to French company SUEZ.
In a statement issued here, Stalin said the AIADMK government has awarded the water distribution system contract for Coimbatore at a time when there is no elected local body.
He said it is the duty of the government to provide clean drinking water to the people.
In February, SUEZ on its website announced that it has got the contract.
Attempts by IANS to contact the Commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation or other officials and also the Indian officials of SUEZ for comments were unsuccessful.
According to SUEZ, the contract from Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation is to manage and operate the water distribution system within the entire city to ensure continuous drinking water access to its 1.6 million inhabitants.
“The 26-year project, worth near 400 million euros, is the largest water services contract won by SUEZ in India,” the company said.
According to the company, the scope of the contract includes the optimisation, rehabilitation and operation of the entire water distribution system (reservoirs, water network, house connections, water meters, valves) which will cover an area of over 100 km with 150,000 connections and a distribution network of 1,200 km.
The contract also aims to improve customer services with a state-of-the-art customer call centre and customer agencies to ensure personalised service and faster complaints resolution, the company said.
Since winning its first contract in India to improve water supply and distribution services in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar in 2012, SUEZ has secured a substantial market position in India, winning significant contracts for water distribution and services in major metropolitan cities including Bengaluru and Kolkata, the company said.
The SUEZ group’s activity in India contributes to supplying 5.5 billion litres of drinking water to more than 44 million inhabitants per day.
“Population and urban growth in India, linked with economic development, has resulted in citizens’ new expectations for quality services.
“Our longstanding experience in supplying water to cities such as Algiers, Casablanca and Chongqing, and more recently to Indian cities, enables us to guarantee continuous access to quality drinking water to the population of Coimbatore,” Marie-Ange Debon, SUEZ Group Deputy CEO in charge of international segment, was quoted as saying in a statement.
–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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