Entertainment
Wanted my statement to be India’s statement: Femina Miss India World
Mumbai: Aditi Arya, who is the proud possessor of this year’s Femina Miss India World crown, says she always wanted to represent India on an international level and that inspired her to compete in a beauty pageant.
The 21-year-old model from Delhi suburb Gurgaon, who will represent India at the Miss World 2015 pageant, was enthroned as the winner of 52nd edition of the beauty pageant on Saturday at the Yash Raj Films Studio here by reigning queen Femina Miss India Koyal Rana.
Aditi credits her friends with persuading her to participate in the beauty pageant.
“I had always thought of representing India at an international level, if not through a beauty pageant then through other platforms such as business conferences, conclaves, events…
“I knew that I wanted to get there, some place where I make a statement and it becomes India’s statement. To decide if it was through the beauty pageant route or some other route — that was encouraged by my friends,” Aditi told IANS in an interview.
Having worked in the corporate sector, she feels beauty pageants accord instantaneous empowerment and a platform to be heard, which is not the case with the corporate environment.
“In a corporate environment you climb up that ladder very slowly and you have to really make an effort to be heard. So empowerment comes at a very slow pace, but the beauty pageant just pushes you, it propels you forward instantly,” she said.
Admitting her family was flabbergasted upon the mellifluous news being broken to them, she said she wasn’t bound by any expectations from her family and had their “unending support”, although their teary eyes gave away the pride they felt following Aditi’s achievement.
“They were surprised. They never really bound me by expectations, so I never knew whether they expected me to win or not because they always told me that I have their unending support and the results don’t matter to them.
“When I won, initially I did not know how happy they were but then I saw their teary eyes and I just knew that they’re really proud of me,” she said.
Talking about her key to success, Aditi accredited her willingness to learn for her achievements.
“I had two keys to success. One was to be my natural self and the other would be the fact that I’m always willing to learn. For me, learning never stops — you never reach perfection, you just keep striving for it, no matter how better or worse you are compared to your competition.
“You just compete with yourself. You remain yourself, you don’t change who you are for what the pageant might expect but at the same time, you’re open to learning and you show the potential to grow,” Aditi said.
She isn’t a person who “denies opportunities” and likes to try out “everything” before selecting what’s best for her.
Asked if she’d consider a career in Bollywood, Aditi said: “For me, the focus is the Miss World crown as of now, there’s a lot that I have on my plate but I’m not the kind of a person who denies opportunities.
“I try everything and then I decide what works for me and what doesn’t. I haven’t thought of it as of now but, if in future it strikes me then I’ll try and experiment, and if it works for me that’s great…”
The Grand Finale of fbb Femina Miss India 2015 pageant, which was judged by eminent personalities from the film industry like John Abraham, Manisha Koirala, Sonu Nigam, Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Sonali Bendre, Shiamak Davar and Chitrangada Singh, will be telecast on April 5.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
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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