Google Play belongs to Google Apps - And everybody must know

When someone gives himself/herself the full marks / best prize / number one when correcting his/her own answer paper what should we say about this sort of person? Or what about of his/her friends? Hmm, some very favorable few are hogging the limelight at the "Best of 2018" list in Google Play.

The "User's Choice" App of 2018" is "Goole Pay (Tez)". No other winning app is in this category.

The "Most Entertaining" Apps of 2018 include "SonyLIV" and "Wynk Music (by Airtel" -- Hmm, no Jio, Amazon Prime, Netflix.

The "Best Hidden Gems" Apps of 2018 include "Files by Google"

Is Google blowing its own horn?

Pair Mein Chakkar

A few months back, the Indian government made available the Language Demographics of India (as per the Census carried out in the year 2011)

I referenced the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Census_of_India#Language_demographics to know a little more about the numbers.

This blog post title "Pair Mein Chakkar" is a common way to describe, in India, for someone who does not stay at one place. In English, this may be translated to "Wanderer", or "Nomad", or "Vagabond".

Why such a title? First you have to know that in India there are, currently 29 States and 7 Union Territories. And, all these States were formed to house a certain Language Demographic. For example, the State of TamilNadu comprises of people who speak the Tamil language while the state of Gujarat comprises of people who speak the Gujarati language, and so on.
Of course there is no restriction on the movement of people from one State to another, but generally you will find there are overwhelming native speakers than other language speakers in a State.

So, I was just wondering, which Language Demographic are the most scattered across India. A simple way is to see the difference in the total population in a State and the number of corresponding language speakers in India. While this is not an ideal way, but then I am no number cruncher or a scientist.

So, lets begin. First I will list down the States, their native Language, and their Population:

State	Official Language(s)	Population
Andhra Pradesh	Telugu	84,580,777
Arunachal Pradesh	English	1,383,727
Assam	Assamese	31,205,576
Bihar	Hindi	104,099,452
Chhattisgarh	Hindi	25,545,198
Goa	Konkani	1,458,545
Gujarat	Gujarati	60,439,692
Haryana	Hindi	25,351,462
Himachal Pradesh	Hindi	6,864,602
Jammu and Kashmir	Urdu	12,541,302
Jharkhand	Hindi	32,988,134
Karnataka	Kannada	61,095,297
Kerala	Malayalam	33,406,061
Madhya Pradesh	Hindi	72,626,809
Maharashtra	Marathi	112,374,333
Manipur	Meitei	2,721,756
Meghalaya	English	2,966,889
Mizoram	English, Hindi, Mizo	1,097,206
Nagaland	English	1,978,502
Odisha	Odia	41,974,218
Punjab	Punjabi	27,743,338
Rajasthan	Hindi	68,548,437
Sikkim	English	610,577
Tamil Nadu	Tamil	72,147,030
Tripura	Bengali, Kokborok, English	3,673,917
Uttar Pradesh	Hindi	199,812,341
Uttarakhand	Hindi	10,086,292
West Bengal	Bengali, Nepali	91,276,115

The below table shows the "First language by number of speakers in India (2011 Census)":

Language	First language speakers
Hindi	528,347,193
Bengali	97,237,669
Marathi	83,026,680
Telugu	81,127,740
Tamil	69,026,881
Gujarati	55,492,554
Urdu	50,772,631
Kannada	43,706,512
Odia	37,521,324
Malayalam	34,838,819
Punjabi	33,124,726
Assamese	15,311,351
Maithili	13,583,464
Santali	7,368,192
Kashmiri	6,797,587
Nepali	2,926,168
Sindhi	2,772,264
Dogri	2,596,767
Konkani	2,256,502
Manipuri	1,761,079
Bodo	1,482,929
Sanskrit	24,821

Ok, so, there are some problems in the Language Demographic information. Like the language "Kashmiri" is nowhere stated in any State and is not even stated as the Official Language of "Jammu and Kashmir" State. Like this, there are other languages that have no mention in any State (even as an additional language) like Manipuri, Sindhi, Dogri, Maithili, and maybe others. And, there is a reverse problem too, like the stated Official or Other Language not even finding its way in the Language Speakers section, like Mizo, Kokborok, Santali, Khasi, and more.

Now, lets do some comparisons. I will add up the population of the native language States and compare the numbers with the language speakers. For example, Hindi is the native language of 9 States, the total population of these 9 States is 545,922,727 and the total Hindi speakers are 528,347,193. In this case, the 9 States can accommodate the total Hindi speakers. What does this say, does it say that there are no Hindi speakers in other States, absolutely not, but they do not stand out as "Pair Mein Chakkar" people to me.

Please bear in mind the problems I stated above. So, I will show a subset of the languages:

Language	Sum of State Population	Number of Native Speaker
Hindi	545,922,727	528,347,193
Bengali	94,950,032	97,237,669
Marathi	112,374,333	83,026,680
Telugu	84,580,777	81,127,740
Tamil	72,147,030	69,026,881
Gujarati	60,439,692	55,492,554
Kannada	61,095,297	43,706,512
Odia	41,974,218	37,521,324
Malayalam	33,406,061	34,838,819
Punjabi	27,743,338	33,124,726
Assamese	31,205,576	15,311,351

From the above table, we can see that 3 language speakers are more than the population of their native language States:

• Bengali (2,287,637)
• Malayalam (1,432,758)
• Punjabi (5,381,388)

From my above information, Punjabi speaking people are the most scattered across India and definitely have "Pair Mein Chakkar"

Unity vs Humanity

Just some thoughts on the differences and general meaning of the words Unity and Humanity.

What is Humanity. For me, Humanity is when a person helps another person that is in need. This feeling is very personal and is limited to one on one contact. The regular Indian will call this "Bhai-chara" (loosely this means brotherhood/amity)

What is Unity. For me, Unity is a feeling that binds multiple persons/groups/communities. Unity is seen when multiple persons/groups/communities help other multiple persons/groups/communities that are in need. The regular Indian will call this "Ekta" (this means Unity)

Putting this into mathematical form Humanity is 1 -> 1 while Unity is n -> n.

In present India, where we are taught from a very young age the slogan of 'Unity in Diversity', I personally see very little shred of Unity. I see Humanity in my daily life but I rarely see any Unity.

People say, look at this group, they have Unity within themselves. Well, if you call them a group, they are already a single unit, so how does Unity even come here. Within a group, there can be Humanity, and not Unity. If a group requires Unity, then this is just not a group but a combination of multiple groups. So, in reality there is just Humanity between the persons even within a group and no Unity.

In India, Unity has been relegated to only religious festivals. Festivals are the only time where you will see Unity in Diversity in India. We just love to feed each other and dance together.

What about before and after Festivals? Back to norm. Every person for themselves. Where does Unity go? I do not know, but as a consolation there is definitely Humanity left.

Look at the recent show of "Unity" by the Farmers. What can you see? Only a specific state's farmers going on hunger strikes, beating themselves up and what not. Do you see the whole of India's farmers supporting their farmer brethren from other states. Nope. Unity brings about revolutions, but we do not have Unity? I do not see it.

What you could see are some people coming out of their homes to give food and water to the striking farmers. This is Humanity, not Unity.

Humanity is required for sustenance. Unity brings about revolutions.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 - Xiaomi's last Hurrah

After the disastrous Redmi 4 series, Xiaomi has put out a similar showing in the Redmi 5 series. The new series is not as tiresome as the previous series, but it lacks the punch to become dominant in its intended price brackets.

The prices for the 5 series phones:

	2GB RAM 16GB ROM	3GB RAM 32GB ROM	4GB RAM 64GB ROM	6GB RAM 64GB ROM
Redmi 5	7,999	8,999	10,999
Redmi Note 5		9,999	11,999
Redmi Note 5 Pro			14,999	16,999

The best price / performance product that is on open sale is the Redmi Note 5 with 4GB RAM 64GB ROM. Interestingly, this version is just called the Redmi 5 Plus in Xiomi's home territory. They are peddling this phone with the "Note" moniker here.

What do you get in 12 Thousand Rupees. You DO NOT get dual cameras. You DO NOT get dual tone flash. You DO NOT get the latest Android. You GET last year's SOC. You GET a bulky phone that will more likely weigh >300 grams if you use Tempered Glass and a shock absorbing Case Cover.

So, this is most likely the same situation like the last time. The last time too, in the Redmi 4 series, Xiaomi got away by selling disappointing devices, but they did so due to the price advantage. Well, not this time. This time they do not have that much of a price advantage and this is where we can strike hard.

Who will cut Xiaomi to size. Do we have any other competition? YES WE DO.

On the Home Front we have Lava Z91, Micromax's Canvas (2018 series) and Bharat 5 (2018 series), Smartron t.phone P and srt.phone.

From the other side, there are a slew of devices from Vivo, Oppo, Huawei: Like Honor 7X, Honor 9 Lite, Vivo Y71, and more.

But the real Xiaomi Killer is ASUS. ASUS has come with the best way to finish off Xiaomi's dominance with its Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1. Now, with this phone, ASUS is going to ace the competition. And, they want more. I read in some recent news article that ASUS wants to capture the Rs 5000 to Rs 20000 market. This will definitely be bad news for Xiaomi.

How the big and mighty fall. First it was Nokia, then Microsoft, Sony is rarely seen, Samsung had to give up its crown, and now its time for Xiaomi to slunk back from where it came from.