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Javed, Shabana to be feted at Singapore Festival

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Mumbai, Aug 25 (IANS) Veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar and his actress-wife Shabana Azmi will be honoured at the Singapore South Asian Film Festival (SAIFF), the first edition of which will begin on September 1 in Singapore.

Shabana will be honoured with the South Asian Woman of the Year and Javed with the South Asian Literary Award. Actor Abhay Deol will receive the South Asian Icon of the Year, read a statement issued on behalf of the event’s organisers.

The gala, which will conclude on September 10, will host a red carpet world premiere of “Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai”, starring Nandita Das and Manav Kaul, and directed by Soumitra Ranade.

Special screenings will be held of Afghani director Siddiq Barmak’s “Osama”, which was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, Leena Yadav’s “Parched”, Singaporean director K. Rajagopal’s much-acclaimed “A Yellow Bird”, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s “Once Again” and a much-anticipated Bengali film “Roktokorobi” by young Bangladeshi director Amitabh Bhattacharya.

The festival showcases 40 feature films, shorts and documentaries from India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh as well as special screenings from Singapore.

Apart from screenings, SAIFF will have world premieres, screenings, workshops, award ceremonies, panel discussions, master classes and music performances.

Abhayanand Singh, Festival Chairman, said: “The festival is a landmark initiative showcasing for the first time in the city South Asian cinema of such scale and quality. We wish to make a big impact and become a significant cultural gateway in the years to come.

“Through the powerful medium of cinema, we hope to build closer ties between the global city of Singapore and the developing nations of South Asia.”

Amit Aggarwal, Artistic Director of SAIFF, said: “The challenge and drive in selecting films for the Singapore SAIFF was to create a program that is truthful to the exciting new voices and stories which richly bring out the complexities of South Asia.”

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

CasinoDays India

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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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