Feature
Sushma Swaraj dies At 67
NEW DELHI: Sushma Swaraj, former foreign minister and a senior BJP leader admired across political lines, died on Tuesday evening after a cardiac arrest. She will be cremated with state honours in Delhi this afternoon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, became emotional as he visited her home this morning and spoke with her husband Swaraj Kaushal and daughter Bansuri. In tweets, the PM described her death as a “personal loss” and wrote: “India grieves the demise of a remarkable leader who devoted her life to public service and bettering lives of the poor.”
Sushma Swaraj, 67, had been unwell for some time and had opted out of contesting the election earlier this year. She was taken around 9 pm to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where several BJP leaders and ministers gathered after the news started trickling in.
Hours before her death, Ms Swaraj had, in what would be her last tweet, congratulated PM Modi for the move to end special status to Jammu and Kashmir and reorganise the state into two union territories. In her last tweet she wrote “Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime,” she had tweeted.
A nine-time parliamentarian, Ms Swaraj became the youngest minister of a state, Haryana, back in 1977. She was also a former Supreme Court lawyer and was among the top ministers in PM Modi’s cabinet in his first term, which ended in May.
As Foreign Minister, Ms Swaraj earned praise for responding to SOS messages from Indians across the world; her interventions ranged from seeking information on relatives stranded in avalanches in other countries to helping families bring home a relative’s body. An active social media user, she often responded on Twitter to people seeking assistance or just reaching out to her and used her wit to tackle even bizarre messages.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also mourned her death.
Sushma Swaraj was also chief minister of Delhi, and later held the portfolios of information and broadcasting, and health in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The body of former Union minister Sushma Swaraj will be kept for three hours at the BJP headquarters today for party workers and leaders to pay tributes, BJP working president JP Nadda said. Her last rites will be performed at the Lodhi crematorium.
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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