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Lok Sabha passes Consumer Protection Bill 2018
New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) The Consumer Protection Bill 2018 was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday amid slogan shouting by the Opposition.
Moving the Bill for its passage, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Ramvilas Paswan said the Bill was non-controversial and was in the interest of the consumers.
He said the Bill, which seeks to establish authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ disputes, is above partisan politics.
The Minister said that a penalty provision has been incorporated in the Bill, but does not envisage jail terms.
The Bill was passed after an hour-long discussion in which 11 members from different political parties participated and presented their views.
The Bill was introduced in January during the last Winter Session of Parliament.
It seeks to replace the three-decade-old Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and seeks to set up a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to “promote, protect and enforce the rights of the consumers”.
Participating in the debate, Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Pratima Mandal demanded that celebrities be restrained from endorsing any product.
“The celebrities or endorsers may also not be able to understand the scientific compositions of the food products and the science behind the claims. Therefore, to deal with the situations like these it may be a better option to ban celebrity endorsement completely,” she said.
The Bill also seeks to provide Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions at national, state and district levels to look into consumer complaints.
She said the Bill empowers the Central government to appoint members to this commission but does not specify that the commission should have a judicial member.
“If the commission was to have members only from the executive, the principal of separation of powers may be violated. The Bill confers power on the Central government to appoint and remove members and provide conditions of service for members of the district, state and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission,” she said.
Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) Tathagat Satpathy said that power to appoint members into the commission at the district and state levels lies with Central government which will be an attack on the fundamental structure.
Consumer Protection Councils will also be set up at the district, State, and national level, as advisory bodies. Consumer mediation cells will be set up on the same lines.
–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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