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NaMo likely to receive French President Hollande in Chandigarh

Published

9 years ago

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to receive France President Francois Hollande, who will land in Chandigarh on January 24 before attending the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

Sources said that Modi will receive Hollande at the technical area of the Chandigarh Air Force Station (AFS). Both leaders will spend next few hours in Chandigarh before leaving for New Delhi in the evening.

Hollande had expressed his desire to visit Chandigarh, one of the few planned cities in the country, designed by famous French architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s and 1960s.

President Hollande is likely to visit Chandigarh’s ‘Capitol Complex’, Rock Garden, Sector 17 Plaza (the city’s commercial and business centre), Tagore Theatre and the Le Corbusier Centre in Sector 19 (where the master-planner and his team worked and conceptualized the city).

The exact itinerary of Hollande’s visit will be finalised on Wednesday and Thursday (January 13-14) when the advance team, including security officials, of the French President arrive here, a senior official of the Chandigarh Administration said.

The French Ambassador to India had recently visited the city in preparation for the president’s visit.

Preparations are in full swing and security arrangements are being worked out for the French President’s visit. A conference is also likely to be held at the hotel.

Sources said the French President will stay at the Taj Hotel in Chandigarh’s Sector 17 area for the few hours that he will be in the city.

Last year, when Modi made his first visit to the city after becoming prime minister, the city’s administration was reprimanded by the union home ministry for going over-board on the security part and virtually locking in the entire city.

The Chandigarh Administration is careful this time that nothing of that sort is repeated even though two VVIPs will be here on the same day.

The over-zealous administration had ordered shutting down of schools and sealed certain roads and parts of the city. Even the city’s cremation ground became out of bounds for city residents.

All these measures, which harassed residents, drew considerable flak, forcing Modi to tweet and apologise for the same and even order a probe into the matter.

Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier, whose real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, led a team of European planners to design Chandigarh. The country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted the city to be a symbol of post-independence, modern India.

Corbusier planned the city on the lines of a human body – the Capitol Complex was to be the head of the body, the commercial centre its heart, the industrial area its hand and the intellectual centre being the parkland.

Each sector in the city was planned to be self-sufficient with markets, institutions and other services.

The Capitol Complex was conceived by Corbusier himself. The main buildings here, the Secretariat Complex, the Legislative Assembly complex and the High Court Complex, were completed during his time.

The ‘Open Hand’ monument, the symbol of Chandigarh, is also in this complex.

The unbuilt buildings from Corbusier’s drawing table included the Governor House, Museum of Knowledge, an 11-storey building in Sector 17 and a football stadium near Sector 26, among others.

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Entertainment

Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists

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2 years ago

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June 25, 2022

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PureWin Online Betting

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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