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Tourists find Taj ‘much more hypnotisingly beautiful’ than imagined as World Heritage Week ends
Agra, Nov 25 (IANS) The World Heritage Week celebrations came to an end on Sunday, after a series of activities including a cleanliness drive at historical monuments, a painting contest, ritualistic welcome of foreign guests and a photo exhibition.
The 17th century Monument of Love — Taj Mahal — was visited by more than 40,000 tourists on Sunday, while on Saturday the figure was 41,350. Entry to children below 15 is free.
Aditi, a medical doctor, who arrived early with her husband Arjun from the United States, was truly ecstatic after a glimpse of the white-marble marvel from the entrance. “Wow! Just like the picture postcard I saw, in fact much more hypnotisingly beautiful than I had imagined.”
After the recent mudpack ‘beauty treatment’, the Taj wears a dazzling shine.
“In the soft winter sunshine, flanked by green foliage and the river Yamuna flowing majestically at the rear, the scene is plain heavenly,” exclaimed Arjun, who saw the monument for the first time.
Visitors to the Taj Mahal appeared largely satisfied with the facilities available at the monument.
The toilets are cleaner and much better maintained, noted Yogesh Kapoor of Karnal, who had come after several years with his family. He was particularly happy at the way the crowd was being managed. “So many people, yet such smooth flow and such good ramps for the disabled on wheel chairs.”
While tourists showed plenty of interest in visiting monuments in Agra during the World Heritage Week, the locals lamented the rampant encroachment by squatters. The cultural activists blamed the Archaeological Survey of India for not doing enough to bind the local population with the rich historical heritage of the city.
“It is sad and unfortunate that the public in Agra hardly feel a sense of pride or emotional connect with some of the world’s best architectural properties. Rather, the heritage is seen as an impediment in the economic development of the city. This is perhaps due to a series of restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court to control pollution,” said Surendra Sharma, President of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.
This perhaps explains the general apathy towards history and heritage in Agra, Sharma added.
Agra, about 200 km south of New Delhi, has three World Heritage monuments – the Taj Mahal, the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri – and numerous other buildings and sites drawing lakhs of tourists round the year.
Eminent Mughal historian R. Nath said: “The mandarins in ASI, mostly passionless babus, have little idea about history, culture or modern-day conservational practices.”
Perhaps the greatest threat to heritage monuments is the encroachments. The ASI, however, says that the state government agencies have not provided it the necessary support and police back-up to deter the encroachers.
Almost all Mughal monuments have been dwarfed by encroachments, though the Taj has been able to breathe easy because of the apex court and international concern for its safety. Other monuments are not so lucky.
Delhi Gate, close to the Raja Mandi station, finds itself threatened by new constructions, but the district authorities do not have the courage to act against the powerful encroachers.
The Fatehpur Sikri complex continues to be threatened by illegal activities of the mining mafia despite a categorical directive from the Supreme Court to the district authorities to stop them.
–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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