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India slips on World Happiness Index: UN report
Washington: Indians are fast losing on the happiness front, says the UN World Happiness Report 2015, adding that the country has significantly lost six places in the well-being rankings of 158 countries since the last report that two years ago.
India is placed at 117th position with a score of 4.565 on scale of zero to 10. In 2013, the country was ranked 111th with a score of 4.772.
For other South Asian countries, Pakistan has maintained its position at 81 with a score of 5.194 out of 10 while Bangladesh is at 109th spot with a score of 4.694.
Nepal grabbed 121st position with a score of 4.514 while Sri Lanka is at 132nd spot in the rankings that is led by Switzerland and followed by Iceland and Denmark to fill the top three positions.
“As the science of happiness advances, we are getting to the heart of what factors define quality of life for citizens. We are encouraged that more and more governments around the world are responding with policies that put well-being first,” explained lead author professor John F Helliwell from the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
“Countries with strong social and institutional capital not only support greater well-being, but are more resilient to social and economic crises,” he added.
On a scale running from 0 to 10, people in over 150 countries, surveyed by Gallup over the period 2012-15, reveal an average score of 5.1 (out of 10).
Six key variables explain three-quarters of the variation in annual national average scores over time and among countries.
They are real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption and generosity.
“This year, for the first time ever, the report breaks down the data by gender, age and region and finds striking differences, some much larger than have previously been found,” the authors noted.
The first World Happiness Report, released in 2012 ahead of the UN high-level meeting on Happiness and Well-being, drew international attention as a landmark first survey of the state of global happiness.
The latest report digs even deeper into the data looking at country trends since the first report, regional indicators, factors in gender and age and the importance of investing in social capital.
“It demonstrates that well-being and happiness are critical indicators of a nation’s economic and social development and should be a key aim of policy,” Helliwell emphasised.
The report gives evidence on how to achieve societal well-being.
It is not by money alone but also by fairness, honesty, trust and good health.
“The evidence here will be useful to all countries as they pursue the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” the team pointed out.
“As we consider the value of happiness in this report, we must invest early on in the lives of our children so that they grow to become independent, productive and happy adults, contributing both socially and economically,” the authors concluded.
The report also demonstrates that a key national challenge is to ensure that policies are designed and delivered in ways that enrich the social fabric, and teach the power of empathy to current and future generations.
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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