In Outlook this week, our cover story looks at how India is heading towards fantasy sports frenzy with millions playing online cricket games and crores of rupees being won and lost. Does it amount to gambling? We also take a look at how two states in India are battling almost bipolar climate calamities: a drought in Karnataka and a cyclone in Odisha. A look at how they are coping with these weather extremities.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to Outlook this week.
00:03 You know the general elections and IPL are the two things that the country is really
00:06 hooked on to right now.
00:08 And as you know we have been covering the elections in the last few weeks so we thought
00:10 we will take a break this time.
00:12 And it is not exactly an IPL cover, it is related to IPL.
00:16 It is about these fantasy cricket games that the whole country seems to be playing.
00:22 Jyotika our senior correspondent has done the story.
00:24 Jyotika if you could please explain to our readers to begin with what exactly is the
00:28 game?
00:29 What is the need?
00:30 Why are so many people completely addicted to it?
00:32 See fantasy cricket is a kind of online game where you create a virtual team and then you
00:38 place a bet.
00:39 I mean it can be a money bet or it can be just a free to play kind of thing.
00:44 And after that based on the point systems which your virtual team gets and the performance
00:49 of real players you get a score and then you get a ranking based on which winners are chosen
00:55 by the platforms like Dream11, Dot Ball and others, Hala Play and all.
01:01 So this virtual gaming is becoming a frenzy in India.
01:05 It was just 2 million around 2 or 3 years ago and it is estimated to be 100 million
01:11 by 2020.
01:12 My God that is a huge number.
01:15 In fact the amount of money involved is also expected to increase from 4000 crores to 12000
01:21 crores by 2023.
01:23 So there is no regulation right now on how to play these games but according to the industry
01:31 and the companies which are offering such platforms it is a game of skill and it does
01:35 not amount to any kind of betting or gambling.
01:38 So when I was coming to that is does it, would not this amount to, you said there are 2 forms.
01:42 One you play without any money and the other you can put money on your team, right?
01:47 So in that the second part does not it amount to gambling?
01:51 According to Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict in 2017 case, they said that it is
01:56 a game of skill like the horse racing and all.
02:00 So it is still a grey area and since our betting laws are around 150 years old and there are
02:06 no recent directions, so it is still a grey area and we do not know which way it is going
02:11 to go.
02:12 But there are real people who have won big money.
02:16 You profile in fact in the story you profiled a few.
02:17 We spoke to many people but I mean people are saying on an average they have won around
02:23 10,000 and more and the biggest money winner which we got was a person named Nitesh Yadav
02:28 who has won around 12 lakh rupees in last 1 and a half to 2 years.
02:33 It has become a secondary source of income for him.
02:37 So this is how you know the trend is increasing.
02:39 And of course on the flip side people would be losing money as well.
02:42 Yeah, we profiled a lawyer named Varun Gamba, according to him he lost 50,000 and he claims
02:48 that it is a kind of betting and it is not a game of skills.
02:52 The main thing is that how so many people are into it.
02:55 I mean you know many are playing for fun you said.
02:57 Yeah, it started as fun but according to few lawyers and players we spoke to, they say
03:02 that it becomes addiction.
03:04 And according to the industry body IFSG, people in tier 1 cities like Mumbai and Delhi, they
03:12 play around 3 times a week while people from tier 2, 3 and 4 cities, they play around 4
03:19 to 5 times a week.
03:20 So they are saying 50% of their traffic is coming from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and these
03:26 include some educational areas like Dehradun and Kota.
03:30 So we can presume that maybe there are kids also who are playing it from these educational
03:35 hubs also.
03:36 Yeah, it is incredible.
03:37 It is a great trend to catch and to explain what this actually means and you know that
03:42 is a really well done in-depth analytical story.
03:45 Now moving on the other big story of course you know the two major disasters that happened
03:49 recently is one the cyclone, cyclone Fani in Odisha and the other part which is probably
03:56 not as much there in the media and as Ajay Sukumaran, our correspondent in Bangalore
04:01 travelled to find out about is the drought conditions.
04:03 Ajay, I am told Maharashtra one knew, you know there have been stories in the Vidarbh
04:09 area etc. but one didn't really know the extent to which people are struggling for
04:14 water in Karnataka.
04:15 Could you, if you could share a few of your experiences when you travelled there?
04:20 Yeah, to start off I think it is not well known probably but Karnataka has the most
04:28 or the highest area of rain fed land after Rajasthan in the country.
04:36 So and you know you have these peculiar situations like last year when the south west monsoon
04:46 started about 45 taluks were initially in the initial few months they were declared
04:52 flood hit but just 100 kilometers or so there was you know there was a water scarcity and
04:59 many of those taluks later were declared drought prone, drought hit.
05:04 So you had them both in the same season you know within by June to August you had both
05:09 flood and drought.
05:11 And this has been there, this has been the case for a long time now.
05:15 Why hasn't I mean you know government after government they have not been able to address
05:19 this?
05:20 Like we have gone to Chitradurga by sheer location it is you know it is a place it is
05:30 in the eastern part of Karnataka right in the central part and bordering Andhra and
05:36 so that is a drought prone area because you know it is people when you speak to people
05:43 they you know people tell you out of the last in the last 100 years maybe 80 of them were
05:50 you know drought years.
05:51 So I mean that is the kind of thing that people would generally tell you, locals would tell
05:55 you.
05:56 So what would be the way out you think?
05:58 I mean you know has anybody tried other you know of bringing water in, drip irrigation,
06:04 other you know technological advancements in this area?
06:07 Well they have when you speak to farmers they only tell you one thing we need to make sure
06:14 the tanks have water.
06:16 So well that is a fact you know but where unless it rains you know of course there are
06:23 plans also Chitradurga is among those districts that it has just one reservoir which supplies
06:32 water and it is a very old one.
06:34 I think the first reservoir in Karnataka, Vani Vellasarga was built in Chitradurga and
06:39 now I mean there have been plans to draw water from the Badra, upper Badra projects it is
06:45 called to so that there is water made available.
06:49 These plans are on so people are waiting and seeing you know that things could help.
06:54 And in the areas you travel you also pointed out that it is not only farmers and agriculture
06:58 you know for water for agriculture even for households, little towns there is I mean there
07:04 is just for daily use the water is not there.
07:06 In some villages yes there is no drinking water because from what the authorities compile
07:16 about 130 odd, 132 villages at the end of April they were being supplied water in tankers.
07:22 Basically the government gets from wherever bore wells are available they fill up and
07:27 go and supply these villages.
07:30 So it must be mentioned in couple of villages that I went to there were these RO drinking
07:36 water plants, little booths so they were working people were telling me that it was working.
07:42 So that much was there but then it is the you know wherever you go there you know the
07:48 first thing people talk about is water.
07:50 Well we can only hope that it is a normal monsoon this time and it comes in time and
07:56 you know this problem is sort of you know somewhat at least solved.
08:00 That is what everybody is waiting for I suppose.
08:03 Thank you very much Ajay, thank you very much Jyothika, thank you.
08:05 Thank you.
08:06 Thank you.
08:06 Thank you.
08:11 Thank you.
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