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Adil Jussawalla wins Sahitya Akademi Award 2014

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New Delhi: Poet and critic Adil Jussawall’s “Trying to Say Goodbye” is among eight books of poetry conferred the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2014, it was announced here Friday.

Apart from this, five novels, three books of essays, three of short stories, one of literary criticism and an autobiography have also won the award that recognises premier works in 22 Indian languages.

Bengali poet Utpal Kumar Basu’s “Piya Mana Bhabe”, Bodo poet Urkhao Gwra Brahma’s “Udangnifrai Gidingfinnanei”, Shad Ramzan’s “Kore Kakud Pushrith Gome” (Kashmiri), Gopalkrushna Rath’s “Bipula Diganta” (Odia), Jaswinder’s “Agarbatti” for Punjabi, Gope Kamal’s “Sija Agyaan Buku” in Sindhi and Munawwar Rana’s “Shahdaba” (Urdu) have also won the award.

Well-known novelists Shailender Singh (Dogri), Ramesh Chandra Shah (Hindi), Subhash Chandran, (Malayalam), Asha Mishra (Maithili) and Poomani (Tamil) have been awarded for their literary writings.

A distinguished jury representing 22 Indian languages had recommended these books and they were approved by the executive board of the Sahitya Akademi which met Friday with the institution’s president Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari in the chair.

Winners of Manipuri and Sanskrit language awards will be declared later.

Arupa Patangia Kalita (Assamese), Nanda Hankhim (Nepali) and Rampal Singh Rajpurohit (Rajasthani) have got the award for their short stories, Jayant Vishnu Naralikar (Marathi) for his autobiography, Jamadar Kisku (Santali) for his play and Rachapalem Chandrashekara Reddy (Telugu) for his literary criticism.

Kannada poet, writer and professor G.H. Nayak, publisher, writer and critic Madhavi Sardesai (Konkani) and late photographer Ashvin Mehta (Gujarati) have got the award for their books of essays.

The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs. 1,00,000 will be presented to the authors at a special during the Festival of Letters – the annual function of the Akademi – March 9, 2015.

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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

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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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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