Entertainment
Finding NiMo: Bollywood takes dig at Nirav Modi, bank, politicians
Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) Bollywood celebrities Rishi Kapoor, Richa Chadha and Vivek Agnihotri have raised questions about the major banking fraud carried out by billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi, who left the country in January.
Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, known for his quirky tweets on political issues, wrote on Friday: “What I cannot understand is that a bank loans Rs 11,300 crore ( $1.8 billion) since 2011 to someone, and no inquiries took place during that period? Only proves ‘All that sparkle are not diamonds’. Lot of skeletons in the cupboard and lots of hands in lots of gloves!”
Actress Richa Chadha commented: “Bro! We pay 30.9 per cent income tax, 18 per cent GST and VAT on everything we buy. But Nirav Modi gets way with Rs 11,000 crore. My CA won’t be happy, but why the hell should I pay tax? So someone steals and gets away with it again?”
The news of the fraud in a Mumbai branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) broke out on February 14. Questions are being raised on who let the jeweller — whose creations have been worn by the likes of Hollywood biggies Kate Winslet and Dakota Johnson — to leave the country.
Photographer and producer Atul Kasbekar and ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan shared an SMS that is doing the rounds in the midst of the news about the scam.
“Finding NiMo — movie by Punjab National Bank,” they tweeted.
Filmmaker Sangeeth Sivan shared another SMS via Twitter: “There is a new entry in the dictionary to describe the way scamsters operate… It’s called ‘Modis operandi”.
“Ra.One” director Anubhav Sinha asked one “quick, cute, innocent question” — “Was Nirav Modi’s bank account linked to his Aadhaar.”
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has three “simple” questions — “Why are these corrupt businessmen fleeing the country, despite a friendly Narendra Modi as PM? Why didn’t they flee earlier when their Enemy No. 1, honest Sonia Gandhi was ruling the country? Where is Raghuram Rajan these days?”
Even writer Devdutt Pattanaik made his point.
“Those who don’t care for the law are always loyal to the KING. Those who care for the law always loyal to the KINGDOM. Notice: Political parties of India (and their NRI cheerleaders) are loyal to individuals and families rather than the country.
“Banks collect citizen’s money. They give it to rich people as loan. Rich run abroad without repaying. Governments let them escape. Could it be as they fund political parties? We will never know. Political parties not obliged to reveal income source, remember, unlike citizen.”
Author Chetan Bhagat said: “Can PNB properly explain what the scam or fraud is here? If you have given LoCs without collateral, that’s just stupid. The person you are giving it, to will take it. How is it fraud? Be brave and tell us what stupidities have you done.”
Meanwhile, Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, the global brand ambassador for Nirav Modi, is seeking legal opinion to terminate her contract after the jeweller was accused of committing the fraud.
Actor Sidharth Malhotra too had associated with the brand, but his contract had ended last year. There has been talk that he too has been contemplating legal action against the designer and the brand, but his team has denied this.
“Speculation around Sidharth Malhotra taking legal action against Nirav Modi and his diamond brand is incorrect. Sidharth’s contract with Nirav Modi’s diamond brand ended last year, and the actor has not been involved with the brand since,” read a statement issued by his team.
–IANS
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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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