Feature
Modi to meet Obama, G4 leaders in US
New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Barack Obama on September 28 in New York, besides holding several bilaterals with world leaders, and also meet the top CEOs of US Fortune 500 companies during his five day stay in the US.
On Thursday, Modi begins the day with a roundtable on the financial sector, in view of a lot of foreign institutional investors being keen to invest in India, said Vikas Swarup, the ministry of external affairs spokesperson briefing the media on the prime minister’s schedule in the US.
Modi will also have a couple of bilateral meetings, which are being decided.
The prime minister is also scheduled to meet a number of top tech honchos during his visit.
He will attend a roundtable on Media, Technology and Growth Story for India which is being coordinated by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, besides the CEOs of other media entities, said Swarup.
It will focus on how to leverage India’s growth story with the media and through modern communications technology. He will then have a bilateral meeting with the President of Guyana David A. Granger.
Modi will attend a dinner with some of the top Fortune 500 company CEOs, during which he will seek to give a push to the Make in India initiative, said Swarup.
On Friday, Modi will hold several bilaterals, and some are still being worked out.
He will start with a bilateral meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, followed by a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He will make a statement at the UN session on sustainable development, following which he will hold a bilateral with the Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades.
On Saturday, Modi will attend the G4 summit with the leaders of Brazil, Germany and Japan – the four countries that have taken the lead in for pressing for UN Security Council reforms.
After 2004, this is the first time that the countries are holding a summit, said Swarup, adding that it is very significant in the light of the UN General Assembly passing a decision for text based negotiation on reform of the UNSC.
On Sunday, Modi is to visit Facebook campus at Hacker Square. He will also visit Google campus and have a look at their inventions in the area of healthcare, smart grid, to see in which way the Skill India and Digital India initiatives can be boosted.
He will then meet with Ernest Moniz, the US secretary of energy, following which there will be a roundtable on energy that will see some brainstorming on options on renewable energy. He will attend the India-US Startup Konnect 2015, being coordinated by NASSCOM, on how to kickstart the Indian economic system.
The prime minister will have a call on by California Governor Jerry Brown, followed by a call on by Salman Khan, the head of the Khan Academy, the largest academy for online courses, during which talks would be held on open university system.
He will then address the Indian community at SAP Center, where 20,000 people are expected. This is the first time that an Indian prime minister is visiting California in 30 years. He will then leave for New York.
On Monday, Modi will have a bilateral with French President Francois Hollande, followed by a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, and then World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.
He will meet President Obama at 11 a.m., followed by attending a lunch hosted by the UN Secretary General. He will later attend a summit hosted by Obama on UN peacekeeping on the way forward for the peacekeeping nations. This will be followed by a meeting with Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, followed by a meeting with Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas. He will then depart for India.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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