Feature
No Indian engagement with Pakistan till end of 2019 general elections
New Delhi: After Pakistan was kept out of the radar of India’s Neighbourhood First Policy throughout 2018 because of its continued support to cross-border terrorism, it is now learned that New Delhi will not at all engage with Islamabad at least till the conclusion of the 2019 general elections in India.
“Until the elections are complete, don’t expect any major initiative from our (India) side,” a source here said on Thursday.
“We will not have any political dialogue whatsoever,” the source made it clear.
Bilateral ties have remained frosty with Islamabad not having taken any action against terrorists and terror groups operating out of Pakistan’s soil.
After Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf won the general elections in July, there was much speculation about changes in India-Pakistan ties.
On September 20, India also accepted an invitation from Pakistan for a bilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and new Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later that month.
But within 24 hours of accepting the invitation, New Delhi axed the meeting following two disturbing developments during that period.
In the first incident, terrorists abducted and gunned down three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir, marking a sharp escalation in militancy in the state which India says is backed by Pakistan.
Also, Islamabad issued postage stamps in memory of Burhan Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen leader who was shot dead by Indian security forces in July 2016.
India not to do any engagement with Pakistan till end of 2019 Lok Sabha polls:
Late in November, Pakistan opened the Kartarpur corridor on its side of the border for Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism’s founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life.
Though Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri crossed over to Pakistan for the ground breaking ceremony of the project performed by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Sushma Swaraj reiterated India’s position that talks and terror cannot go together.
Qureshi’s remarks that Imran Khan had bowled a “googly” by taking the initiative to open the Kartarpur border also did not help matters.
Sushma Swaraj said Qureshi’s remartks exposed that Pakistan had no respect for the Sikh sentiments and it was doing it all for politics.
Stating that the Kartarpur event should be seen as purely a religious affairs and there was nothing diplomatic about it, sources here said it is now for India to work on the modalities on its side of the border.
India also did not respond to an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Summit in Islamabad.
The Saarc summit has not be held since India and other member countries of the bloc boycotted the last summit that was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2016 in the wake of the cross-border terror attack at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in which 19 army personnel were killed.
The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit carried out the attack, the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades.
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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