Feature
Modi among close world leaders Obama is inviting
New Delhi: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the US on June 7-8 in the course of his five-nation tour starting on Saturday, he will be among the few close world leaders that President Barack Obama is inviting in the last year of his presidency.
“President Obama spoke to the Prime Minister and mentioned to him that this year he was inviting some leaders with whom he had a very close and productive working relationship to visit him in the United States,” Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said at a pre-departure media briefing here on Friday.
This will be Modi’s second bilateral visit to the US after his visit in September 2014.
Jaishankar said that in many ways it would be a sort of “consolidation visit” after Obama and Modi working on the US-India relationship in the last two years.
After departing on Saturday morning, Modi will stop over in Herat in Afghanistan where he will, jointly with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, inaugurate the India-Afghan Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, that has been rebuilt with Indian aid.
Originally constructed in 1976 on the Hari river basin, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the civil war in Afghanistan.
“It was built at a cost of approximately Rs 1,700 crore,” Jaishankar said.
He said that three turbines on the dam will 42 MW of electricity and the water will irrigate around 75,000 hectares of land.
After attending a lunch to be hosted in his honour by Ghani, Modi will leave for Doha, Qatar, where he will meet Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.
He will also visit a camp of Indian workers. Qatar is home to around 630,000 expatriate Indians, many of whom are blue collar workers.
Modi will become the first Indian prime minister to visit four Gulf countries after having visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Iran.
On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.
Jaishankar pointed out that trade between India and the Gulf region stood at $112 billion and two-thirds of India’s energy supplies come from that region.
Bilateral trade between India and Qatar stands at $10 billion.
“It (Qatar) can also be a large economic partner as it has a large sovereign wealth fund,” the foreign secretary said.
After signing of bilateral agreements and an interaction with the Indian community, Modi will leave for Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday evening.
On June 6, the prime minister will hold a meeting with President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann and also interact with business leaders.
Jaishankar said that Switzerland was India’s fifth largest trade partner and the 11th largest investor in India.
The country is strong in the areas of renewable energy and vocational education.
After concluding his engagements in Switzerland, Modi will leave for Washington on June 6 where he will meet heads of think tanks.
On June 7, he will be hosted for lunch by President Obama at the White House after which he will attend a business meeting.
The highlight of Modi’s US visit will be his address to a joint sitting of the US Congress on June 8.
“Today, the Congress is very much at the heart of our relationship with the United States,” Jaishankar said.
“It has been very supportive of India,” he said.
After attending a lunch and a reception at the US Congress and an Indian community reception, Modi will depart for Mexico City on June 8 afternoon where he will hold a meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto.
This will be the first prime ministerial bilateral visit from India to Mexico in 30 years after then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit in 1986.
Manmohan Singh visited Mexico in 2012 to attend the G20 Summit.
Jaishankar said that two-way trade between India and Mexico stood at $6 around billion.
Within Asia, India is the largest importer of crude oil from Mexico.
India exports pharmaceutical products and automobile parts to Mexico.
“We expect the focus of the discussions will be on bilateral cooperation, specially bilateral economic cooperation,” Jaishankar said.
After attending a dinner that will be hosted for him by President Pena Nieto, Modi will leave for India on June 8.
Entertainment
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
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.