
Andhra Pradesh govt will build permanent houses for poor: Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy
The minister visited housing layouts at Gidijala in Visakhapatnam district and Paidivada Agraharam in Anakapalli district, to inspect the progress of construction and interacted with beneficiaries.
During his visit, minister Parthasarathy reviewed the current situation in the layouts and addressed meetings held within the layouts. He emphasized that the previous govt's lack of proper planning had caused problems and that the current govt would rectify those shortcomings and construct quality houses for the poor.
The minister advised women of self-help groups to utilize the financial assistance provided by the state govt to fulfill their dream of owning a home. He mentioned that additional assistance would be provided to beneficiaries from BC, SC, and ST communities, including Rs 50,000 for BCs and SCs, Rs 75,000 for STs in plain areas, and Rs 1 lakh for STs in tribal areas.
As part of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme, the govt would provide 3 cents of land to beneficiaries in rural areas and 2 cents to those in urban areas.
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The minister also revealed plans to establish shopping complexes near NTR colonies to enhance the economic strength of the poor.
The minister inspected the housing layouts in Gidijala and Paidivada Agraharam, where 2,098 plots were laid on 45.76 acres and 10,228 plots were laid on 320.83 acres, respectively. He stated that the housing scheme would be implemented robustly without any room for political differences and warned that a thorough investigation would be conducted into any irregularities in housing layouts and house constructions.
Bheemili MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Pendurthi MLA Panchakarla Ramesh Babu requested the minister to provide basic facilities promptly, sanction additional financial assistance, and cooperate to inaugurate the houses in a festive atmosphere. They requested that the remaining sites be allocated to local people.

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an hour ago
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Gaming Bill promotes e-sports while putting curbs on real money betting games: S Krishnan, MeitY Secretary
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So, both MeitY and various other ministries of the government of India will work together to promote those segments of the online gaming industry. Live Events You Might Also Like: Online Gaming Bill tabled in Lok Sabha, MeitY Secy explains the blanket ban The other part of the industry is really about online money gaming. Now, as far as online money gaming is concerned, a great deal of concern has been expressed by a number of people including the media about the problems with addiction, the problems with the financial distress caused by addictive playing of these games, and across various parliamentary committees, members cutting across different parties have repeatedly emphasized to MeitY and to other ministries to act on these issues and to decisively act and take action. 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The definitions have been laid down very clearly as to what is an e-sport and how will an e-sport be recognized and also as to what is an online money game and the distinction is very clearly drawn. The Act and the relevant sections draw out this distinction very clearly. I can read out the relevant section to help you understand how that distinction is drawn. For instance, in the case of e-sport, it means an online game which is played as a part of multi-sports events, involves organized competitive events between individuals or teams conducted in multi-player formats governed by predefined rules, is duly recognized under the National Sports Governance Act 2025 and registered with the authority in accordance with section 3, that is under this act, has outcomes determined solely by factors such as physical dexterity, mental agility, strategic thinking, or other similar skills of users as players. It may include payment of registration or participation fees solely for the purpose of entering the competition or covering administrative costs and may include performance-based prize money for the player. So, there is a clear definition of what e-sports is. In the case of online money game, it means an online game irrespective of whether such game is based on skill, chance or both played by a user by paying fees, depositing money or other stakes in expectation of winning which entails monetary and other enrichment in return of money or other stakes but shall not include any e-sports. So, the requirements of an e-sport and the requirement of an online money game have been clearly distinguished and an online casual game or an online social game as it is called which basically covers education, recreation, and so on has also been clearly drawn. In terms of investment that the gaming sector sees, India is one of the fastest growing hubs for online gaming and now that this sector is going to be heavily regulated, it is a positive in terms of protection for the players who are logging onto these games. How is this going to affect investment flows coming in from overseas? Do you believe that now e-sports could see a bigger thrust in terms of investments coming from overseas? S Krishnan: The point that you need to note here is that the industry itself has been asking us for this clarity and they have also been asking that there needs to be a specific authority which is under a legislation, a statutory authority to help regulate. So, clearly, with this kind of regulation and with the measures which have been proposed in the Bill, we should see the legitimate segment of this business really growing. You Might Also Like: Ban on online money gaming: what does the fine print say? I do not see any difficulty there. One of the objectives of the Bill is to promote India as a global capital of game development and creation of this game. So, creativity and allowing creators to grow is a significant objective of this Bill and that will be served by both the regulation which makes it clear and draws that distinction clearly and by the promotional measures which are planned. What it protects against is the other types of games where people make a lot of stakes and wages. We understand nearly 450 million people across the country play different kinds of online money games and tend to lose a lot of money in the process every year. That is the segment which is being restricted now. I just like to add one point which is a very progressive element of this Bill. This bill does not criminalise the playing of the game. If there is an individual who downloads the game onto his phone or onto a laptop, they are not liable. There is no criminal liability on that account. It only criminalises the providers of the game, those who sort of make available this game on platforms and so on. It criminalises advertising for such games. It criminalises the transaction, that is, people who provide the facility to transact the funds or to move the funds in such games. So, in that sense it is very progressive and does not criminalise the actual players of this game in any way so that is another progressive element of the way that the bill has been formulated. Just on that note, this would be a near-term measure because once the ban is effective, these games would no longer be available to be downloaded from app stores. Is that understanding correct? S Krishnan : That is right. But then the point is that even if you do have or if you have uploaded downloaded earlier, you are not under any risk of anybody coming and knocking on your door and saying let me check your phone to see if there is… (12:01) I think to that extent it will not lead to any harassment of any individual.