Entertainment
Should celebrate failure as much as success: Beauty pageant winner
By Natalia Ningthoujam
New Delhi, Nov 24 (IANS) India got a successor to Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra earlier this month. But Mrs India Universe 2017 – World Shreya Krishnan feels that the country should celebrate and encourage others too who represented India on international platforms but couldn’t clinch the crown.
Ever since Manushi Chhillar won the coveted Miss World 2017 title in China on November 18, people have been showering her with wishes.
Shreya, who will represent India at the Mrs. World pageant in December next year, is proud of Manushi’s victory too but feels those who were unable to win should not be ignored.
“A lot of love and encouragement are given (to those who win) but we should also encourage people who don’t win as often…. We should be a country that celebrates failure as much as it celebrates success because every year, we have a representative out there.
“We tend to remember the winners but forget that there were people who were really good but couldn’t win due to circumstances,” Shreya, 32, told IANS over phone from Bengaluru.
The mother of a four-year-old has won several beauty pageant titles including Cloud Nine Queen 2013 and Super Mom 2014. Is there pressure on her to win Mrs. World?
“When I participated in all those pageants, I didn’t think that I should come back home with a crown. I went with a mindset that I should enjoy the process of the experience to the fullest and gain what I can. Also, to try to make a change in the mindset of all contestants regarding body positivity or beauty,” she said.
On preparing for the international beauty pageant, she said: “I don’t see another form of preparation apart from being healthy and happy.”
The marketing and communications professional, who sports a short hairdo, believes beauty pageants are not just about looks.
“In my experience, it is not all about beauty. If you are good, have a strong personality and carry it well and can also put forward your ideas in the best manner, you do have an edge,” she said.
Should the pageants do away with vital statistics then?
“Vital statistics are probably a wrong way to measure fitness. If you want to be healthy, fit and happy, you don’t have to be essentially of a specific size. There is some perception change that needs to be brought in… which some pageants are trying to do.
“They are moving away from the traditional requirement for having specific measurements. It should be emulated,” she said.
It’s not just about pageants.
“Whatever a woman chooses to do, she should go ahead and do it without thinking much. Women are always putting themselves last. It is important to put themselves first and stop comparing themselves to someone who has nothing to do with them,” she said.
“They should be the best version of who they are and should take care of themselves. That’s their journey to real and authentic happiness,” she concluded.
(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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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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