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IRDA advised to frame guidelines for MCA structure
Chennai: India’s insurance regulator has been advised by a select committee of the Rajya Sabha to examine and frame guidelines for allowing multiple corporate agencies (MCAs) to represent more than two insurers.
The select committee on the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill also categorically said that insurers cannot absolve themselves of the acts of omission and commission of their agents.
The report of the select committee, headed by the BJP’s Chandan Mitra, was tabled in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.
The committee has advised the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to “frame appropriate guidelines in consultation with the stakeholders, especially as regards allowing an MCA to operate for more than two Insurance Companies (both life and non-life).”
Under the existing corporate agency regulations a corporate agent can represent only one life/general and health insurer.
It was suggested to the committee that the existing norms may be revised and the proposed MCAs may be allowed to operate simultaneously at least for ten insurers (both life and non-life) for development of the business by the insurers across the country.
It was also suggested that the start up capital for MCA be raised to Rs.10 crore from Rs.15 lakh to keep away fly-by-night operators.
The committee also favoured IRDA being given the flexibility to prescribe the broad architecture for determination of the expenses of an insurer in any financial year as regards the remuneration to their agents/intermediaries.
The committee also recommends that adequate protective mechanism may also be instituted by IRDA to ensure that the due commission to the agents against business done is protected through regulations and their commission structure should be determined by IRDA depending on market conditions.
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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