Top News
Government to liberalise e-visa regime:Official
New Delhi:With enabling of the Indian e-visa facility to 150 countries, the government is now in the process of further reforms to boost the tourism sector in India, a senior official said on Thursday.
“We have e-visa for 150 countries. We are reforming the e-visa regime further. We are trying to extend it to medical tourism and business tourists and it’s just a matter of time,” Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi said at an event here organised by industry chamber Ficci.
He said the government will set up a task force under the Tourism Ssecretary to work on the connectivity aspects of tourist destinations, which will include representatives from National Highways Authority, civil aviation and the railways.
The secretary also said the Tourism Ministry will organise a three-day mega event — ‘Incredible India Tourism Investor Summit’ — from September 21.
“We have requested the Prime Minister to be the chief guest of this event. We will lead from the front to attract investments.”
Zutshi also said the ministry will set up an investment desk in cooperation with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and Invest India to facilitate investors.
States have to come on board to boost the sector as they can focus on the core infrastructure, he said.
“We have to gallop to cope with the gap. The gap in the infrastructure could be hotels, airlines or roads. We are pretty late, if you compare it with the infrastructure existing the world over,” he said.
“We have taken 24 railway stations to upgrade them. Very soon we are going to launch in October or November a glass coach on one sector which is being built by the railways.”
A Ficci-Yes Bank paper on “Investment in Tourism Infrastructure Unleashing the Growth Potential” was released on the occasion.
The paper recommends granting of an export industry status to the tourism sector and establishing tourism research wings at state and central levels for conducting studies, among others.
“States may undertake various initiatives like setting up surveillance cameras, tourist police, 24X7 helplines, to ensure safety of the tourists.
States may also collaborate and facilitate seamless travel across various identified integrated circuits through integrated taxation regime and public transport modes,” it said.
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
