Top News
Indian woman NGO worker abducted in Kabul,Government assures help
Kabul/Kolkata/New Delhi: An Indian woman, working with an international aid agency in Afghanistan, has been abducted from the volatile Kabul, her family and officials said on Friday.
Armed suspected Islamists seized Judith D’Souza, 40, who works for the Aga Khan Foundation as a senior technical advisor on gender issues in the Afghan capital, around Thursday midnight. It was not known who is responsible for the kidnapping or whether a ransom was sought for her release.
Her family told reporters in her home city of Kolkata that they learnt about the abduction from the Indian embassy in Kabul early on Friday morning.
The family urged the Afghan and Indian governments to act fast so as to rescue Judith D’Souza, who was set to return home next week.
“It happened in a different country. The government of that country should take steps. She liked the place as she said there was a lot of work to be done,” her sister Agnes said.
“The government of India must do something and get my sister back. I want her back,” she added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj responded and said: “We will spare no efforts to rescue her.”
“She is your sister and India’s daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her,” the minister tweeted.
Officials in New Delhi said that the Indian embassy in Kabul was in touch with the Afghan authorities who were making all efforts to secure her release.
The Aga Khan Foundation, which is a part of the Aga Khan Development Network, told IANS that an unnamed “staff member” was abducted.
But the aid agency, which works in health, education and rural development sectors and has pumped nearly $750 million into Afghanistan’s reconstruction, didn’t provide more details.
“An investigation by the authorities has been launched, in conjunction with security officials and various partners. Every effort is being made to secure the safe release of the staff member,” Aga Khan Foundation spokesperson Sam Pickens said in an email response to IANS.
At Judith’s home in central Kolkata, her parents were distraught.
Asked about Taliban involvement in the crime, her sister Agnes said: “I don’t know.”
She said Judith never spoke about any danger to her. “She has been abroad before, but this is the first time this has happened.”
Her father Denzile described Judith as “very brave”.
“We were concerned about her safety in Afghanistan but she said she was quite safe. She told us there was plenty of security,” he said.
Judith was home two-and-a-half-months ago.
The abduction brought back chilling memories of many Indians abducted, a few of them murdered later, in Afghanistan where kidnappings is a huge problem for international aid agencies.
At least two abducted Indians have been killed in the Taliban captivity while four others were released in the last 13 years in Afghanistan. These include two construction workers who were kidnapped and released in December 2003.
Father Alexis Prem Kumar, an Indian Roman Catholic priest, was kidnapped in Heart in June 2014. He was later released in February last year.
An Indian best-selling author, Sushmita Banerjee who married an Afghan businessman, was shot dead by suspected Taliban gunmen in Sharan city in Afghanistan in 2013. In 1998, she wrote the bestselling memoir “Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou” (A Kabuliwala`s Bengali Wife), offering a vivid description of the suffering of women under the Taliban.
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.
Content provided by Adverloom
Cheers and Cheers: Barzilla’s Joyful Ode to Inclusivity and Celebration
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online
What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
IPL 20202 UPDATE: KXIP vs MI IPL Dream11 Team Prediction for Today Match, Update Point Table of all Team.
In a Live debate AAP leader Syed Asad Abbas hurls abuses to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
‘India’s Most Wanted’ trailer out Arjun Kapoor on hunt of Osama-Bin-Laden
Time to move on: Sonakshi on Shatrughan’s joining Congress
