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What is NSG membership?
NSG — the three letters have dominated the news and virtually tailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he closes his five-nation tour.
Member countries are meeting in Vienna on Thursday and are also expected take up India and Pakistan’s applications.
Islamabad sought the membership 10 days after New Delhi. So, here is your guide to what is NSG (short for the nuclear suppliers group), why India is keen on it and why it has come to define India’s strategic goals in the last few days?
1. A reiteration of non-proliferation credentials
Founded in the aftermath of India’s nuclear test in May 1974, the NSG is a club of 48 countries dedicated to curbing nuclear arms proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development.
An American initiative, its objective was to make India join the non-proliferation treaty. India has stayed away from ‘discriminatory’ NPT.
It was 2008 civil nuclear deal with the US, seen as a validation of India’s non-proliferation credentials, which paved the way for Delhi’s NSG bid.
The NPT remains a biased regime that classifies the world into the nuclear-haves (the US, and Russia, the UK, France and China) and have-nots (all other countries). There is little to suggest that big five will work for a world free of nuclear weapons.
2. Clean energy push
India is a growing country with massive energy needs. It has set for itself an ambitious goal of sourcing 40% of its power from non-fossil sources and here is where nuclear energy comes into play. India will need latest technology and NSG membership will come in handy. Though it got a one-time NSG waiver in 2008, the country needs constant access to global markets and a stable trading framework
3. It helps domestic firms
A place on the nuclear trading table will help Indian companies such as the Walchandnar Industries Limited (WIL) and L&T to expand business. India has a robust indigenous nuclear industry that worked mostly in isolation as international sanctions were slapped every time a nuclear test was conducted. An NSG membership will make these companies comply with international norms and make it easier for them to ply their trade abroad.
4. Make in India
New Delhi and Moscow have announced a plan to build reactors in India to sell them to other countries, a move expected to give a push to the Modi government’s Make in India initiative. It will not only generate jobs but also help in technology development. As an NSG member, India will be better placed to implement the initiative.
5. End of the nuclear winter
One of the objectives of the 2008 nuclear deal was that the US would help India get into export-control regimes such as the NSG, the MTCR (missile technology control regime), Australia Group and Wassenar Arrangement. As a member of these groupings, India will have access to defence, space and nuclear technologies. The MTCR is done, of the remaining, the NSG is most crucial. Admission to the MTCR will open the way for India to buy high-end missile technology and surveillance drones such as Predator.
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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