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Yemen evacuation: Over 350 head home on two IAF
New Delhi: The Indian evacuation efforts of its stranded nationals in strife-torn Yemen was in full swing on Wednesday, as two Indian Air Force flights took off from Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, carrying over 350 Indian nationals back home even as a naval ship went back to a Yemeni port to ferry more Indians to safety.
A Globemaster transport plane took off from Djibouti carrying 168 Indians. It is expected to arrive at Kochi in Kerala at 1.30 a.m. on Thursday, the defence ministry tweeted.
A second Globemaster C-17 aircraft took off for Mumbai at a quarter to 11 p.m. with 190 Indians on board, defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar tweeted.
The second flight is expected to arrive in Mumbai at 3.15 a.m.
Kar also said INS Sumitra, which had ferried the 350 Indians to Djibouti from the southern Yemeni port of Aden on Tuesday night, has left Djibouti for Al Hodeidah, a port city on the west coast of Yemen.
It is likely to reach there on Thursday forenoon, he tweeted.
Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh, who reached Djibouti on Tuesday, was coordinating the evacuation operation with the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted a photograph of the minister wishing a small boy on the second flight a safe journey home.
Of the 350 Indians evacuated, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal, 22 from Delhi, 15 from Karnataka and 13 from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, according to tweets by Akbaruddin.
Two warships — destroyer INS Mumbai and stealth frigate INS Tarkash — are also on their way to Djibouti as part of an operation named “Op Raahat”.
India has also agreed to requests from neighbours Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to assist in evacuation of their nationals from Yemen.
According to Sri Lankan media reports, the island nation’s foreign ministry said there were around 75-100 Sri Lankan expatriates, including students in Yemen.
The Colombo Gazette said the “Indian government has promptly acceded to the request of the government of Sri Lanka to bring the stranded Sri Lankans along with Indian nationals in Yemen, who are to be evacuated by air and sea on special flights and ships respectively”.
The Bangladeshi foreign secretary on Wednesday said India had agreed in principle to help Bangladesh evacuate its nationals, but after pulling out its own nationals.
The Indian High Commission tweeted: “India to Assist in Evacuation of Bangladesh Nationals from Yemen.”
According to the Bangladesh government estimates, between 1,500 and 3,000 Bangladeshis, who mostly work with international organisations, live in Yemen.
Fighting has been going on in Yemen since January 22 when the government under President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was ousted by Shia Houthi forces.
This has provoked the recent military campaign by a coalition of 10 countries led by Saudi Arabia.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act fast to help Keralites stranded in Yemen.
In a letter, Chandy said he was getting frantic calls from young Kerala nurses in Yemen.
He pointed out that Pakistani and Chinese nationals had already been evacuated.
“They (nurses) all are literally weeping and are afraid for their lives if urgent steps are not taken,” wrote Chandy.
He also pressed Modi to prevail upon Saudi Arabia to ensure landing facilities for Indian flights in Sana’a and other airports in Yemen.
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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