Top News
Flip-flop over new airport around Delhi continues
New Delhi: What exactly is the status of a proposed new airport in the National Capital Region? Going by the statements of two ministers — one overseeing tourism and the other civil aviation — the position remains unclear.
At a tourism event here on Thursday, attended both by Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma and Civil Aviation Minister Askok Gajapathi Raju, the former said the national city and its neighbourhood needed a new airport, while the latter has maintained that he is unaware of such a proposal.
The duo, however, was together at the event only for a brief while.
The remarks by Sharma, who is also minister of state for civil aviation, come two days after he told parliament that no clearance on such a proposal had been given — in what appeared to be a curious about-turn to an announcement he had himself made on June 26.
Responding to the June 26 remark, Raju had said: “Please ask Mr Sharma about this. Anybody can give a suggestion, anybody can write (to the concerned ministry). I don’t even know whether it should go to the Cabinet.”
On Thursday, Sharma said: “There is a lot of congestion at the Delhi. To serve some 8-10 crore population, who now have to depend solely on the existing airport, there is a need for another one in the National Capital Region.”
He also went into the formalities to be followed for clearances and added: “We have written to Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments asking them for land where we can have a new airport. As and when we get a response, we can act.”
Sharma had earlier said that Jewar, around 100 km from the national capital, was among the sites identified. “The proposal to develop a new airport, for which several sites are being explored, including Jewar, would now be sent to the Cabinet for approval,” he had said.
But on Thursday, he said: “We have not decided on Jewar yet. As soon as we get responses from the states we have written to, the location will be decided.”
The reason for this flip-flop, according to officials, is due to an existing guideline that no new airport can come up within 150 km of an existing one.
The proposal has also come under fire as detractors claim the present Indira Gandhi International Airport, which can handle some 62 million passengers per year, has ample under-utilised land and catered to a traffic of 40.9 million in 2014-15. The airport’s capacity can be expanded to 100 million.
In his reply to the Rajya Sabha, Sharma had said: “In case there is a need to set up a greenfield airport within an aerial distance of 150 km of an existing civilian airport, such cases shall be placed before the union cabinet for consideration.”
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.
Content provided by Adverloom
Cheers and Cheers: Barzilla’s Joyful Ode to Inclusivity and Celebration
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online
What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
IPL 20202 UPDATE: KXIP vs MI IPL Dream11 Team Prediction for Today Match, Update Point Table of all Team.
In a Live debate AAP leader Syed Asad Abbas hurls abuses to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
‘India’s Most Wanted’ trailer out Arjun Kapoor on hunt of Osama-Bin-Laden
Time to move on: Sonakshi on Shatrughan’s joining Congress
