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Nepal still needs vital humanitarian assistance: UN
Kathmandu: Two months after the first of two devastating earthquakes hit Nepal, some 2.8 million people require continued vital humanitarian assistance, the UN said on Thursday.
The 7.9 magnitude earthquake on April 25 and the ensuing aftershocks that jolted the Himalayan nation, killed 8,832 people and left 22,000 injured. Hundreds of people still remain unaccounted for.
Temporary shelter, food and livelihood support, basic medical care, sanitation and hygiene remain the key needs as survivors now also face the added challenges posed by the ongoing monsoon season.
“Ensuring the survival of hundreds of thousands of people, who lost their homes and livelihoods in the back-to-back disasters, through the monsoon must remain our top collective priority,” said Jamie McGoldrick, humanitarian coordinator in Nepal.
“Timely, principled, and equitable relief and recovery are the key prerequisites for any reconstruction effort to be successful. The humanitarian community will continue to support the government in its effort to address the unmet humanitarian needs.”
With nearly 530,000 houses destroyed and another 278,000 damaged by the quakes, hundreds of thousands of people continue to remain in makeshift shelters, including over 117,000 people who have relocated to open air sites.
Many of the affected families are also still struggling to recover and rebuild their livelihoods, as seeds for planting and livestock were lost in the disasters.
So far, a total of 350,000 tarpaulins were distributed in 14-affected districts, but it is estimated that some 43,500 households have not yet received adequate supplies.
Material assistance, including corrugated iron sheets, is still required for 44,000 of the 125,000 families who began rebuilding their homes.
Aid agencies estimate that more than 1 million people continue to require food assistance to meet their daily dietary requirements, while 500,000 people need continued support to protect and restore their livelihoods.
More than 900,000 people depend on sustained provision of water and sanitation, including 2,000 communities relying on water filtration kits provided by humanitarian partners.
Access to safe temporary learning spaces is still required for some 370,000 children.
Provision of relief depends now even more on the logistical support, as the monsoon season has begun.
“Humanitarian needs are still significant and are expected to persist through the end of September,” said McGoldrick.
“Our ability to address these needs depends largely on the funds which will be made available for humanitarian assistance itself, that is financed independently and separately from recovery and development efforts.”
Till date, only $153 million or 36 percent, was received against the $422 million humanitarian appeal.
An additional $200 million in support to post-earthquake relief was provided directly to the Nepal government on a bilateral basis.
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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