Feature
‘Acche din’ only for Modi, his businessmen friends: Rahul
Nirmal (Telangana): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said “Acche din” have come only for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and few businessmen close to him.
Addressing a public meeting at Wadial village near here, he said Modi has five to six businessmen friends and the entire country was being run for them.
“It is a government of selected people. It is a government of suit-boot and selected industrialists,” said Gandhi after winding up 15-km long padyatra in Adilabad district to console families of farmers who committed suicide due to financial distress.
“Acche din” have not come for people but for Modi, who is visiting different countries, he quipped.
“Is there anybody among you who wears a Rs.10 lakh suit,” Gandhi asked the crowd, then adding: “Modiji wears it”.
“One year has passed. Did anybody among you get a job which Modiji at centre and mini-Modi in Telangana (K. Chandrasekhar Rao) had promised,” he asked.
The Congress vice chief said wherever he is going, people are telling him that they committed a mistake by voting for the National Democratic Alliance.
Hitting out at the NDA government for proposed amendment to land acquisition law, the Congress leader said the government want to snatch the lands of farmers and give them to few industrialists who are close to Modi.
He said the central and state governments have thousands of acres of land with them and quoted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that only eight percent of the projects are stalled for want of land.
Gandhi however clarified that his Congress party is not against development. “Industries should come. There should be partnership between industries, farmers and labourers. We are against crony capitalism. Crony capitalism means give everything to two to three industrialists,” he said.
Hitting back at NDA and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for criticising him for meeting families of farmers who committed suicide, he said if Modi and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had visited them, there was no need for him to do so.
The Congress leader also took a dig at them for not bothering to visit farmers who lost crops in unseasonal rains.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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