Feature
Modi misleading India with wrong facts, figures: Congress
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “misleading the country by placing wrong facts and figures before it”, and said he was in the habit of projecting whatever the country had achieved till now as due to his own efforts.
The prime minister must check his facts and figures before speaking as most of the times he made false claims, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said at a press conference here.
“We would like to tell him that India was not born when he took over as the prime minister in May 2014,” Sharma said, adding that there had been many leaders and people who actually took the country to its present heights.
He said a lot had been done on modernisation of the country before the BJP formed the government at the Centre. “Digitalisation is good, but is it his vision,” Sharma asked.
“Modi is trying to confuse people by making false claims. He should stop making such claims,” the Congress leader said.
Sharma said that India enjoyed more support within the G-4 group earlier than now when Modi was heading the country.
“The United Kingdom and France supported India’s demand to be a member of the United Nations Security Council with a veto power. Russia was also supporting it,” he said, explaining that it was all there during the tenures of previous governments. So what was there to pat one’s own back on the issue, the Congress leader asked.
Sharma also demanded an inquiry into public events organised for Modi during his visits abroad.
“The Congress demands a proper probe into all this,” he said, adding that Modi was “misusing” his state visits by getting public events organised.
He said there would be chaos in countries like the United States where the United Nations was located if leaders of different countries began organising meetings like Modi during their visits for UN meetings.
“If leaders of other countries like China and UK began addressing their people there, it would be a problem for the administration of that particular country,” he said.
“For Modi, it’s I, me and myself,” said the Congress leader.
Sharma also took dig at Modi getting emotional while meeting officials of Facebook at the Facebook town hall and said that Modi’s claim that his mother cleaned dishes to make both ends meet was not true.
“I have got this probed, it’s not the case,” the Congress leader said, adding that they were not an affluent family but at the same time they were not that poor that they had to work at somebody else’s home to make a living.
He said the prime minister’s claim that he sold tea in his younger days should also be probed since it’s wrong.
“His father ran a canteen. When did he (Modi) sell tea,” he asked.
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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