Feature
How ‘Airlift’ created a Guinness record
Mumbai:While a debate rages on about the veracity of events depicted in new Bollywood flick ‘Airlift’ on India’s massive evacuation efforts in war-ravaged Kuwait, a former Air India official said it was carried out with ‘clock-work precision’ and made it to the Guinness World Records.
“The film ‘Airlift’ has brought the evacuation of over 117,000 Indians residing in Kuwait once again on the centre stage after 25 years. How did the feat get listed as a record in the Guinness Book makes for an interesting reading,” said former Air India (AI) executive director Jitender Bhargava in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Bhargava said as head of AI’s Public Relations, he would issue daily media statements about the number of flights that were operated in the past 24 hours, the number of stranded passengers safety brought from Amman in Jordan to various Indian cities, the next day’s plans of flight operations, etc.
“Since it wasn’t the era of Google which enables one to source information easily, I walked from my office in Air India building to the book store in Eros Cinema complex near Churchgate in Mumbai, picked up a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records to access the address of the editor/publisher of Guinness book,” he recalled.
Armed with that, he posted (the world didn’t know e-mails then) a letter to the Guinness editor enquiring if any record of evacuation by a civil airliner existed.
A fortnight later, Guinness editor replied through a letter that it did not have a record in their books, Bhargava said.
Meanwhile, the evacuation continued briskly with AI deploying as many aircraft as possible and even the now-merged entity, the domestic carrier Indian Airlines, and Indian Air Force extending a helping hand with their aircraft to bolster capacity to meet the growing demand.
“After the evacuation operation was completed, I sent a comprehensive letter to Guinness providing details of total number of passengers carried, flights operated, duration of the entire exercise, etc. Guinness accepted the record and duly intimated us through a letter,” Bhargava said.
Then, there was a long waiting period and it was only after a few months that the new edition of the Guinness Book of World Records was published with Air India’s achievements duly listed.
“I once again walked to the same book store from where I had sourced the Guinness address to buy a copy of the book for our company’s archives,” Bhargava recalls with a smile.
AI’s achievement is still a part of historical records, a feat performed between August 13-October 11, 1990.
More than 170,000 Indians were stranded in Kuwait at that time and AI operated some 488 flights to evacuate them from Amman to Mumbai, a distance of more than 4,000 km.
The massive operation was conducted during the Persian Gulf War and helped evacuate Indians living in Kuwait and Iraq.
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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