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US lawmakers laud progress in US-India partnership
Washington: Both Republican and Democratic co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans have lauded the tremendous progress made in advancing the US-India partnership with President Barack Obama’s recent India visit.
Ami Bera, the only Indian American in Congress, and George Holding, Democratic and Republican co-chairs of the caucus, respectively highlighted the progress in India-US ties at a luncheon discussion on Capitol Hill Thursday.
Jointly organised by the Embassy of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) the event “India-US Partnership: Shared Effort-Progress for All”, brought together key stakeholders on Capitol Hill.
The session focused on the sea change in the US-India relationship, particularly given President Obama’s recent substantive visit to India, and the shared path forward between the two countries, according to a media release.
In his opening remarks, Holding highlighted the important role that Indian companies are playing through their significant investment and creation of jobs in the US, a lesser-known but equally critical side of the India-US bilateral partnership.
Reflecting on his recent trip to India with Obama, Bera reiterated the strategic values and compatibility that India and the US share.
In the last eight months, the conversation surrounding the relationship has grown to one of optimism and endless opportunities, he said.
“To take advantage of the momentum and move forward especially in our economic partnership, we need to harness the energy and success of the Indian American community and recognize the increasing significance of investments by Indian companies in the US,” Bera said.
India’s Charge d’affaires Taranjit Singh Sandhu relayed the primary deliverables of Obama’s visit to India, commenting that the “relations between India and the US have never been as strong”.
“Our long standing strategic relationship has been upgraded with Delhi Declaration of Friendship committing both nations to elevate the Strategic Dialogue to a Strategic and Commercial Dialogue to advance mutual prosperity,” he said.
Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to be open for business and deepen ties with the US, Sandhu discussed the positive developments between India and the US in sectors such as defence, renewable energy and education.
He also noted the significant contribution of Indian and US companies to advancing this relationship.
Vivek Sharma, Chairman, CII-India Business Forum and CEO, Piramal Healthcare Ltd., speaking on behalf of Indian industry, welcomed the change in tone and tenor of the India-US relationship from just last year.
Stating that Obama’s visit to India “marks an inflection point in the US-India bilateral strategic relationship”, Sharma underscored some of the challenges being faced by Indian companies in the US.
These included the lapsing of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), market access barriers in the pharmaceutical and financial services sectors as well as issues related to the mobility of high-skilled labour.
The session was the first interaction organised under the aegis of the House India Caucus and helped highlight the vast progress that has been made as well as the momentous scope for even greater cooperation between India and the US.
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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