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Politics hasn’t ruined India-Pakistan musical bond:Shafqat Amanat Ali
New Delhi : The exchange of art and music between India and Pakistan has “strengthened over the years” and remains unaffected by political intervention on both sides, says popular Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali.
He feels music managed to be a bridge between the two nations even when artistes from his country were barred from performing in India due to political forces.
“Politics hasn’t really been able to ruin the musical bond between India and Pakistan. This bond has always been there. In fact, it has strengthened over the years,” Shafqat told IANS during his visit here.
“I believe that had this musical bond not been there, the situation would have been worse. But, yes, there are times when a lot of things get cancelled due to tension. Like the Ghulam Ali concert got cancelled,” he said in reference to the cancellation of the ghazal maestro’s scheduled performance in Mumbai due to protests by right-wing outfit Shiv Sena last year.
“These types of political movements do affect this bond. But what’s good is that neither Ghulam Ali said that now he will not perform in India, nor did his Indian fans say that they don’t want him here,” Shafqat said.
In that sense, he believes music has been a constant bridge.
“We always try to do so through various projects (together with Indians). Sometimes the traffic gets high or low, but that happens due to the political situation or some other factors… But this bridge has always been there,” he said.
Nevertheless, he believes that when governments from the two sides begin bilateral talks and negotiate on issues, they should be brought to a logical end.
“It takes just one person who comes and does something or says something that builds controversy. And after that, everything gets ruined and goes back to zero. I feel we should understand that whatever we are starting, we should take it to the end and ignore people who try to ruin that on both sides,” he said.
Asked about his experience of working in India, Shafqat, who has cronned hit Bollywood numbers like “Mitwa”, “Yeh Honsla”, “Bin Tere” and “Dildaara”, said: “Bollywood was always open for Pakistani artistes. It is growing every day.
“Also, a lot of people from India like Daler Mehndi, Mika Singh and Kailash Kher have performed in Pakistan. People’s choice of music is same on both sides. The songs which get popular in India get popular in Pakistan and vice-versa.”
Shafqat says he also gets the love and attention of Indian music aficionados when he performs here, and finds it “a whole different experience”.
Does he feel Indian and Pakistani musicians today are getting widely influenced by western trends?
To that, Shafqat said: “Different trends have come and gone by, but only those songs get popular and stay with you which are melodious and meaningful. There are a lot of melodious tracks that we get to hear even today in India.”
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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