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Gajendra Chauhan finally takes charge of FTII amid protests
Pune:Seven months after his appointment triggered massive protests, actor-filmmaker Gajendra Chauhan on Thursday took charge of the prestigious FTII here amid student demonstrations and police crackdown — and immediately got down to business.
Police used canes to disperse a large number of slogan-shouting students who massed outside the Film and Television Institute of India campus as Chauhan, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, arrived to attend his first meeting of the FTII Society as well as the Governing Council.
In no time, clashes erupted as the students tried to prevent Chauhan’s entry. At least 20 students were detained. Anticipating trouble police had been deployed in large numbers in and outside the campus.
The protesting students shouted slogans like “Go back Chauhan” and “Chauhan murdabad”.
“We were lathi-charged for trying to enter our own campus gate,” student leader Reema Kaur told IANS. Police said the student protest was violent but Kaur insisted it was not so.
Chauhan’s appointment as the FTII chairman in June 2015 triggered unprecedented protests by students and the institute’s celebrated alumni which questioned his stature to head the organisation that has produced some of the best known names in the Indian film industry.
The students launched an indefinite strike on June 12 against Chauhan but withdrew it in October after a morale-depleting 139 days.
Chauhan is best known for essaying the role of Yudhisthir in B.R. Chopra’s “Mahabharat”. He has also featured in small roles in films like “Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge” and “Baghban”.
At the meeting presided over by Chauhan, eminent television serial maker B.P. Singh was elected vice president of the FTII Society and also the vice chairman of the Governing Council.
“C.I.D.” producer B.P. Singh, an FTII alumnus, will also be new chairman of the institute’s Academic Council.
The FTII also nominated filmmakers and film personalities Rajkumar Hirani, Satish Shah, Pranjal Saikia and Narendra Pathak as well as veteran film journalist Bhawana Somaaya to the Governing Council.
Those who attended the FTII Society meeting included Subhash Sharma and Sanjay Murthy, additional secretary and joint secretary respectively in the information and broadcasting ministry, Satish Shah, Rahul Solapurkar, Hirani and B.P. Singh.
Also in attendance were Anagha Ghaisas, Narendra Pathak, Bhawana Somaaya, Urmil Thapliyal, Pranjal Saikia, FTII director Prashant Pathrabe and Chaitanya Prasad, officer on special duty in the ministry.
The Governing Council approved the annual report and statement of accounts of FTII for 2013-14 and 2014-15, while revised estimates for 2015-16 and budget estimates for 2016-17 were also sanctioned.
Earlier, Chauhan was accorded a warm welcome by the staff, administration and faculty on his first visit to the institute.
Addressing the gathering, Chauhan said he would do his best to solve their problems, including the long-standing demand for pension.
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
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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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