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Modi mania hits Indian diaspora in Oz

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Sydney: After wowing and wooing millions all over the world, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to cast his oratory magic on the Indian expatriates living in Australia.

With few hours to go before the mega reception being hosted in Allphones Arena at Olympic Park here in Sydney, the Indian expatriate community seems to be truly in the grip of a Modi mania.

Around 20,000 members of the Indian disapora would be in the live audience of the community reception being organised in honour of the Indian prime minister Monday evening. The organisers are also setting up big screens outside the iconic sporting venue which would enable about 5,000 additional Indo-Australians to watch Modi’s speech.

“I am so excited over attending Modiji’s function that I did not sleep last night,” says owner of a cab company Narinder Sharma while speaking to media in Sydney.

The excitement over the Sydney function is not restricted to the Australia’s largest city only. A chartered train dubbed Modi Express departed Melbourne last night for Sydney with 500 ‘Modi bhagats’. A large number of enthusiasts have missed the train literally as the number of the seats was restricted.

“I am really disappointed as I could not get a seat on the train for Sydney reception of the Indian PM,” says Ranjan Singh Rana while speaking to IANS from Melbourne. “I wish more tickets were given to the Melbournians,” he adds.

The number of those flying to attend the Sydney reception from Melbourne and other distant Australian cities would easily run into three figures.

Sydney may be organising the biggest overseas reception for Modi but it would not be the first down under as the Indian PM has already been received by a euphoric expat gathering when he unveiled Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in Brisbane yesterday.

But it is the Sydney event which is attracting even the Australian mainstream media’s attention because of the sheer size of the audience. No overseas politician has ever received such a rockstar like reception down under in the living memory.

The organisers, the Indian Australian Community Foundation (IACF), are confident that they would host a reception which would be bigger than the one organised at New York’s Maddison Square.

While the excitement over the Allphones event is definitely palpable, a section of the diaspora is not happy over the way Modi reception is being organised. This list of dissenters includes some members of the Indo-Australian Sikh community.

“We have been really disappointed by the organisers as they did not send us an invitation to register for reception for Mr Narendra Modi,” says an audibly anguished secretary of Sikh Council of Australia Bawa Singh Jagdev while speaking to media.

“Even though the invitation was extended to us when we questioned the organisers, we have decided not to attend the event as an organisation. Some members of our community would be attending the event to honour the guest of Australia but they would do so in their individual capacity,” Jagdev says.

Sikh Council of Australia has however disassociated itself from any public protest against the Indian PM.

“Nothing is achieved by such protests,” says Jagdev while asserting that his organisation would give a petition to Modi through Indian diplomatic mission.

His sentiment is shared by a Melburnian car dealer Narinder Singh when he says: “Instead of staging protests against Narendra Modi, we should seek solution by sitting across the table.”

There are number of other so-called community leaders who have expressed dissatisfaction against the organisers in the media but, as pointed out by some senior diaspora figures, their protest is because they were not invited to event.

Entertainment

Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

CasinoDays India

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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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