Entertainment
Will keep visiting India: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
New Delhi: Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, who believes music and sports can strengthen ties between India and Pakistan, says he will continue to visit India despite problems.
On Thursday, the “Main jahaan rahun” and “O re piya” singer was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here in a case of alleged forex violation. In 2011, he was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence following a day’s detention at the airport here for carrying undisclosed foreign currency totalling more than $100,000.
But Rahat remains undeterred and says now “there are no issues”.
“There was the issue in 2011. The Enforcement Directorate called us again for some pending queries. We tried our best to fulfill them. Thanks to god, they were satisfied. Now there are no issues. I will keep visiting India like before,” Rahat told IANS in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.
The singer, who is visiting India after a four-year gap, is currently in the country to celebrate the success of his songs in Bollywood films like “Hamari Adhuri Kahani” and “Drishyam”.
“Music has no boundaries. Music and sports can play a strong role in strengthening bilateral ties. And they have already done it. These things matter a lot, so they should be given more importance,” he stressed.
Speaking positively on the “musical and cultural” relations between India and Pakistan, he said “certain people” were trying to put chains on the blossoming bilateral ties.
“The musical and cultural relations may not be appreciated by certain people, so they are trying to put chains. But it’s a bad thing. It’s not right.
He pointed out that many Pakistanis had relatives in India and vice versa.
“They travel from India to Pakistan. From Karachi, people come to India to meet their relatives.”
Rahat, whose track “Zaruri tha” is getting massive response in India, credits Bollywood’s Bhatt camp for its growing popularity. The song has been featured in the film “Hamari Adhuri Kahani”, which is directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mahesh Bhatt.
“The song is a part of my album ‘Back 2 Love’, which was released in 2014. In the Indian film industry, a good song has a huge platform… (I am hoping) it will get more popularity. It’s all possible because of Mahesh Bhatt. All credit goes to the Bhatt banner,” he said.
“I started off with Pooja Bhatt’s film ‘Paap’ and since then we have shared a great relationship,” added the crooner, who lent his melodious voice to the song “Mann ki lagan” for the John Abraham-Udita Goswami starrer “Paap”.
Rahat also revealed that a new album was in the making, which may see the light of day later this year.
“There is a new album coming out in the end of this year. We are doing the listing of the album right now.”
On the musical style, Rahat said that the yet untitled album was based on Punjabi songs.
“The new album will have 70 percent Punjabi songs and the rest will be in Hindi. There will be songs on the lines of ‘Mai tenu samjhawan ki’. No name has been finalised for this album yet,” he added.
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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