Feature
Modi-Obama summit will be their third in a year
New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama will hold a summit meeting in New York on Monday – their third in a year – during which climate change and bilateral economic and defence ties are expected to figure high on the agenda.
The meeting comes days after the two sides held their first India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue here, headed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The Modi-Obama summit also comes days after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House that saw the US and China strive to smoothen ties amid anger in Washington over increasing cyber attacks on US government installations, that the US has blamed on China.
The US is also concerned over China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
US envoy to India Richard Verma, in a recent talk, acknowledged that, in India, the US has gained a “critically important strategic partner” of President Obama’s Rebalance to Asia policy. But he added that this growing bilateral strategic relationship is “definitively” not directed at the “elephant in the room” China.
In a pointer to the emphasis the US places on India as a rebalance to Asia, Verma also said he was “certain” that the US-India relationship would “serve as an important new buttress safeguarding open commerce and freedom of navigation in the Asia-Pacific region” – in a tacit reference to China’s fast increasing sway in the region.
In climate change, both sides are likely to announce some initiatives with the global climate change talks scheduled to be held in December in Paris.
Verma has said despite difficulties in aligning their approaches to the issue, both sides are aware that without US-India partnership no proposed solution can succeed on climate change.
Defence could also see some announcements. Ahead of Modi’s visit, India approved a multibillion-dollar plan to buy Boeing helicopters.
Earlier, this month the Modi cabinet approved a $2.5 billion deal to buy 37 military helicopters from US aviation company Boeing.
India is to buy 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinooks, placing the US as one of India’s top military suppliers.
In education too, things are on a promising note with the number of Indian students applying to study in the US this year going up by 40 percent over the past year to 130,000. Both sides are hoping to forge links between their institutions of higher learning.
Both sides are also cooperating in third countries. The two are engaging agricultural professionals from Kenya, Malawi and Liberia to improve food security in their countries by increasing crop yields using new technologies.
At the Sushma-Kerry dialogue, both sides agreed to step up cooperation in fighting terrorism, recognizing “the threat posed by Lashkar-e-Taiba and other groups operating from safe havens in our region and the need for Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks”.
The India-US trade has crossed $100 billion and the US is keen that it should go up to $500 billion.
Modi has held talks with top Fortune 500 companies and top US tech companies and urged them to invest in India.
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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