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New social security schemes to widen financial inclusion: Ficci
New Delhi: Industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on Saturday welcomed the government’s move to launch three new social security schemes which it said is intended at widening the financial inclusion process.
“As part of the financial inclusion process, this is a very important step forward in our country’s ability to provide adequate and affordable social protection to all citizens and widen the financial security net to the unorganised and underprivileged sector,” said Jyotsna Suri, president, Ficci.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the three new social security schemes during his visit to Kolkata later in the day. He will launch the ‘Atal Pension Yojana’ (APY), ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’ (PMSBY) and ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ (PMJJBY).
Under the PMSBY scheme, a person will be provided personal accident insurance cover for Rs.200,000 for an annual premium of Rs.12. The cover is for accidental death or permanent total disability.
The scheme will be available to people in the age group of 18 to 70 years with a savings bank account, who give their consent to join and enable auto-debit on or before May 31 for the coverage period – June 1 to May 31 – on an annual renewal basis.
The second scheme PMJJBY, will offer a renewable one year life cover of Rs.200,000 to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18 to 50 years, covering death due to any reason, for a premium of Rs.330 per annum per subscriber.
On the other hand, the pension scheme APY focuses on the unorganised sector and provides subscribers a fixed minimum pension of Rs.1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 per month starting at the age of 60 years, depending on the contribution option exercised on entering at an age between 18 and 40 years.
Thus, the period of contribution by any subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more.
The benefit of fixed minimum pension enjoys sovereign guarantee.
While the scheme is open to bank account holders in the prescribed age group, the central government would also co-contribute 50 percent of the total contribution or Rs. 1,000 per annum, whichever is lower, for five years.
The government contribution will be for those joining the scheme before Dec 31, 2015, are not members of any statutory social security scheme and are not income tax payers.
According to the industry body, once the new schemes take-off, they would encourage people to come within the fold of the formal financial system.
Suri added that the industry body will partake in the effort to provide the maximum outreach for these schemes.
“We would also connect with our member bodies and regional chambers spread across the country to permeate and share the information further,” Suri added.
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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