Feature
UP creates history by organising 1st Regional Journalist Conference in Lucknow
The capital of Uttar Pradesh on the occasion of Hindi journalism Day, hosted its 1st Regional journalist conference that was organised by the National Media Club in the state capital based City Montessori School (CMS) auditorium.The program was kick started with lighting-up of lamp by the honorable Governor of the state, Ram Naik who was the Chief Guest of the event .The main objective of this conference is to discuss the challenges faced by regional journalists and dealing with them. Around 800 journalist witnessed the event .
Apart from this, the Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Hriday Narayan Dikshit, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Dinesh Sharma, Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, BJP State President Mahendra Nath Pandey, UP Law Minister Brajesh Pathak, Cabinet Minister Rajesh Agarwal, Cabinet Minister SP Singh Baghel and UP Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh also attended the program.
At the beginning of the function, a film based on objectives of the National Media Club was shown to all the guests and Chief guests who were present in the auditorium of City Montessori School.
Addressing all the journalists in the auditorium, honorable Governor said, “I am very happy that this is the UP’s 1st Zonal Conference hosted by National Media Club and so many people are present here. I appreciate efforts of the club.” The Governor praised the journalists and said, “Journalism has become the fourth pillar because of its power.”
On other hand, the CMS founder Jagdish Gandhi who was present in this regional journalist conference organized on the occasion of Hindi journalism day on Wednesday in the auditorium of school also lauded efforts of all those who were helping in maintaining cleaning drive of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.The CMS founder Gandhi also gave appreciation to the National Media Club organiser Ramesh Awasthi for conducting and organising UP 1st Regional Journalist Conference first time in the history of Lucknow.
On this occasion, the Aaj Ki Khabar editor-in-chief, Chandrasen Verma along with many other senior journalists from their respective news organisation handed over Memorandum to honorable to Governor of the state and discussed problems faced by media persons in todays era.
This all was conducted in the first half of the program while the second half of the program started around 3 pm in which there was a question-and-answer session related to journalism . This session was non-political, so that all the journalists can benefit from their experiences from senior people of their family as the junior journalist asked sever questions from the senior journalists.
UP Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal was also present there to answer the question raised by the journalists.
After that, there were cultural events organized from six to ten o’clock. Beisde this a program was held Today’s Draupadi’ which was staged by Surabhi Singh while poetry by Indian poet Kavita Tiwari. In this play, the story of Draupadi was shown in a beautiful manner through Kathak dance. It was shown how Draupadi was born, despite having love for Arjun, she had to become the wife of 5 husbands and in the end how a woman faced the world’s biggest insult, ‘Chir Haran’. The reality of this whole drama kept people tied. If the jewelery of the whole event can be told to an organ, then it would be Todays ‘Draupadi’ .
Every beautiful thing ends up so that it can be restored more beautifully. Likewise zonal journalist conference ended in the night around 09: 30 with the promise that on the next Hindi journalism day, when all of us will meet again under a roof, all problems would have been solved.
Entertainment
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
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.